Angel Beats, Moving On
by galgle
Summary: This is my continuation of Angel Beats: Another Epilogue. It follows Inagaki Kouhei and a new SSS along with Otonashi as the student council president. Rated T for mild language and safety. This is my first fanfic ever, so forgive me if I'm not too good. I don't own the image.
1. Arrival and Acquaintances

I don't own Angel Beats or any related parties in anyway.

Forgive me for any grammar or spelling mistakes, it's hard to catch them all.

Side note: I will be using the Japanese tradition of using first or last names to resemble closeness, but I won't be adding honorifics mainly because I'm not 100% sure how they all work. The only Japanese I've been exposed to is anime, forgive me.

* * *

Arrival and Acquaintances

_To imagine I'd die by drowning. This has to be a joke._ I tried to pull my leg out of the car wreck, but it was useless. I was completely stuck. There was no way I would cut it off, and I was running out of air fast. I looked up to the surface and tried to swim up, but the weight on me was way too much. I closed my eyes. I started to smile. _Well, this sucks._

Suddenly, I felt the weight on my leg disappear, and I felt myself start rising. _So this is what it's like to be dead. Man, I wish I could go back._ I kept on rising. I saw more light coming through, _I guess the water surface is near. _And then I felt myself break the surface-and stop.

I looked around completely confused; it turns out I was in a pool. There was a student walking around wearing a school uniform. I observed that it consisted of practically all black with a white undershirt, but I couldn't think of any schools that had a dress code along those lines. I started to stroke towards the pool edge, but then I saw my arm. I could have sworn I was wearing a white hoodie, but for some reason I donned the same blazer as the student. _Well, this is strange. What to do, what to do? _ I decided to ask around for some information, and the closest person was that student.

"Umm, excuse me! May I ask where I am?"

"What are you? Dumb? School just finished and I see that you're taking a swim afterwards. I didn't know you were a swimmer."

_Wow, what a weird guy. Doesn't he think it's strange that I decided to take a dip fully clothed? Then again, I'm a new kid, so maybe he's being kind?_ I tried to understand the situation and said, "Sorry, I'm new here, so I may do some weird things here and there like swimming fully clothed. Forgive me."

"New? Inagaki, you're not a new kid. I know you don't particularly like me, but I've seen you around, and you could at least acknowledge my presence. And swimming fully clothed isn't too weird. I mean, haven't you ever seen people fly out of that window next to the principal's office. Everyone's gotten used to that, so I doubt you can pull off anything that would surprise me. "

_Wait, how does he know my name? I'm not a new kid? I don't even know this place. Heck, I thought I just died! _ Right before I asked him another question, blood squirted out of his head as if he was shot. I did what I thought was the most sensible thing at the time: scream, freak out, swim underwater, and hope that nothing would come to harm me. About three minutes later, I realized I was going to suffocate sooner or later. _Well, suffocate here and face certain death or go up and face probable death. I guess I'm going up. _I jumped off the bottom and kicked back to the surface to the face of a bored-looking girl. "Hmm, you have a pretty good lung capacity, three minutes and you're not even gasping. Impressive."

Stunned by a combination of this girl casually holding a conversation like this while tossing a smoking gun around and the fact that there was a dead guy behind her, I took a few seconds to respond, but it came out, "Err, thank you? I'm a swimmer, so I've trained my lungs, although three minutes is pretty long for a swimmer too. Anyways, I-um-you know there's a-well-dead perso-"

Cutting me off, she immediately responded. "Don't worry about him. He's not a real person. You play computer games?" I nodded awkwardly at the random topic change, but decided that she had the gun, so I probably shouldn't speak up, "good, he's an NPC, he looks normal, but he's really just a mindless humanoid thing. You'd never know if no one told you. They'll act normal no matter what you do though. You'll find a few humans, like you, living with NPC's, but the majority of humans will be wearing my uniform." I saw that she was wearing a white blazer with blue designs and a blue skirt.

"Guys where skirts?"

"I hope you're joking, just know that the male uniform is different from that NPC's. Don't say anything else dumb or I might shoot you too."

"Wouldn't it be bad just to kill other humans? And I thought I was already dead. I could have sworn I drowned trying to save Ka-"

"No need to talk about your death story. It's a personal thing here. I guess I forgot an important fact. You cannot die. You're already dead. Think of this place as purgatory."

"WHAT!? That's not possible! I can't be dead! I'm here!"

"Idiot." With that word, I saw her point the gun at my head and everything went black. I opened my eyes, looked around, and saw that there was blood everywhere. I felt my head for a bullet hole or something, but I seemed fine. I remembered a searing pain which must have been a bullet, but I actually felt great. I looked behind me and saw the girl. _Alright, this is the afterlife. Or halfway there since she said this place was purgatory. I guess I should get used to some pretty strange stuff then. Like impossible death. Or people flying out of a window next to the principal's office. Must be one hell of a principal. _When I thought of that, I remembered the guy that the girl shot. Did he revive too? I looked over, and saw that he disappeared. "Alright, you win. You can't die here, but what happened to that guy I was talking to? Did he get scared of you and run when he revived?"

"NPC's don't revive. And don't go on about that stupid you killed an innocent life stuff. It's just like shooting clay dolls, there's not alive in the first place. Exactly why they're called NPC's" I would really have to get used to a new life here.

"Uh-huh. I'm might take some time to get used to this place. I guess it's safe to say that you're my first friend here though. I'm Inagaki Kouhei. Nice to meet you."

"Friend, huh?" she let out a small laugh, and seeing her smile for the first time, I had to say she was quite pretty. "Alright, then I'll call you Kouhei. I'm Shintani Nanami. Pleased to make an acquaintance." She flipped her long, red hair at me, quickly did a 180, and tossed me a gun. "When I saw a new kid, I thought I should give him a gun, so here you go. It's a Jericho 941 F. Not like you know what that means though. Let's go meet everybody else," she stated as she started walking towards this school's main building.

_Jericho 941 F. Yep, no idea what that means._ "Err, Shintani!" I exclaimed, "Random question, how did you realize that I'm a human?"

"Humans act weird. I can't imagine an NPC swimming fully clothed. I was found sleeping in the school cafeteria on top of the stove, that type of stuff means human. You should watch out for them and try to recruit for the SSS too."

"SSS?" I asked, "Why would you make a group here. This is purgatory, right? Shouldn't we try to be moving on? To heaven or reincarnation or whatever happens?" She immediately faced me with a face half between scared and angry and attempted to calmly explain, "Move on? Why are you here? Don't you hate God? Wasn't life unfair? We're one step closer to God when we're dead. We can find him. We can fight him," with every word, she got more and more intense, showing a burning desire that didn't seem to fit her original picture. "Don't you want to rebel? The SSS found that everyone here hated their lives, and we want to rebel. We've even found traces of people who already passed on, but they wanted to rebel too. I guess they failed, but back to the point. Do you not want to rebel?"

_Rebel against God? Everyone here hated their lives? What? Is there something I regretted in my life? I thought I died happy. Damn, should I not be here? _I decided that I had to figure out the truth about this. _I'll act along with it then._ "Yeah, I guess you're right. Let's go, I want to meet everyone else here."

* * *

We were approaching the school's main building when I started thinking about the idea of rebelling against God. "Shintani, if we're trying to rebel against God, I'm forced to ask, have we found Him?"

"Nope, but we have a lead. The SSS believes there's an angel in this world, an agent of God. He's the student council president; we call him Angel. You'll notice him, he's the only NPC that can identify humans, but being an angel, I'm not sure if he's actually an NPC or something else. He tries to force us to move on and accept our lives, but we don't want to." Right before I responded, we entered the school, and she pushed me against the lockers. A boy glanced at us, waved and continued walking away. She took out her gun and pointed it at the boy. He brushed his red hair out of his eyes and stood straight up. I noticed he was only around my height which is only averagely tall, so I assumed his motion of supremacy meant he had more up his sleeve. Despite this, he just kept a calm smile on his face. "This, Kouhei, is Angel."

"Haven't I already told you not to call me that? It brings back bad memories. Call me Otonashi or Yuzuru." After hearing his request, Shintani immediately shot him. I thought a bullet at five meters would be impossible to dodge, but Angel just slightly nudged his head and the bullet missed him by an inch. He sighed before saying in an eerily robotic voice, "_Guard Skill: Hand Sonic, Level 1" _Two knives appeared to spawn out of his arms and he dashed at Shintani. She jumped to her left and off a locker while pulling out two knives from underneath her skirt. She flipped mid-air and slashed at Angel, but she only managed to take off a little bit of Angel's hair. She gracefully landed next to me when I started to comprehend the situation. Seeing how quick and fluid Shintani's motions were, I thought she'd be fine, but I noticed how calm Angel still was and started to worry. He sighed sprinted, directly at Shintani, and I quickly started deducting possibilities. _They both appear to be seasoned fighters, but Shintani appears to react quicker than either can think. If Angel is going to make the dumb move of making a straight line at her, then he probably has an idea. Shintani's going to react too quickly and make a mistake, but can I help?_ I pulled out my gun and started to aim. I noticed how much my hands were shaking, and I realized that no matter how quickly I could understand the situation, it wouldn't help if I couldn't act. Right as Angel appeared to strike, Shintani reacted and started to parry, but Angel suddenly stopped his motion. As Shintani struck the air, Angel quickly threw his right arm at her to pierce her heart, but a bullet struck his arm at the last second. _Screw aiming, I just need a lucky shot, and I got it. She'll survive if I accidentally kill her anyways, right? _As I finished my thought, Angel whirled around and decapitated Shintani with his left arm's blade.

He cleaned the blood on his blades using his shirt. He then made the blades dissipate. "So, are you a friend of Shintani? You're probably human, but you're wearing an NPC uniform. Are you new?"

"You killed her! I know that we can recover from death, but she just lost her head!"

"Don't worry about it, everything heals. I could burn you to ashes and you'll be fine. This is odd though. I'm standing here doing nothing, and you have a gun. Why don't you try to shoot me? Isn't it better to die fighting than to just let me kill you?"

"You're not trying to kill me, so why should I try to kill you? I heard you're an agent of God. Could I ask him why he made everyone else's lives so unfair?

"I'm really not an Angel. As I said, I'm Otonashi Yuzuru. You say everyone else's lives were unfair. Are you not included in that group? I thought everyone here had regrets in life."

"I can't think of anything I regretted, but I would like to ask in lieu of everyone else."

"You're new; you don't even have a SSS uniform. I doubt you've ever met the rest of the group. It's strange that you're willing to represent them already. More importantly though, you say you can't think of any regrets. By any chance, do you suffer from amnesia?"

"I guess I'm a nice kid. I want to help others. They seem to be nice people, or at least she was," I explained pointing at Shintani's dead body, "and I don't have amnesia or anything of the sort, why?"

"No reason, maybe nostalgia, I guess. You say you're a nice kid, but maybe you're just insane. I just killed the first person you have gained any trust for in this world, and you decide to have a casual conversation with me. Looks like your girl might be coming back soon. So before you go to the SSS and everything, remember this, every fight has two sides, and neither side is bad. Come find me later. I spend a lot of time on the roof drinking coffee. See ya." With that, he nodded his head at Shintani and continued walking to somewhere.

I glanced down at Shintani's body, but I couldn't look long without feeling sick from the decapitated head, so I turned away, but I sat down so she could have some company when she woke up. I looked back, and her head was fine, looking at me as if we were in a normal situation. "Hey Kouhei, I'm bored. Amuse me."

"Err, weren't you leading me to the SSS or something. Do we lose a bit of our memory when we die or something?"

"No, it just got boring. The SSS room is the principal's office. You can find it yourself. Can you amuse me now?"

"I'll be going then."

"Aww."

* * *

I wandered around until I found the principal's office. It was at the top floor at the very end of the hall way which was a strange place for it in my opinion, but even stranger was the broken window next to it. _Isn't that dangerous? The school should get that fixed. Then again, we can't die." _I reached for the door knob and heard someone shout, "No! Wait!" I looked to my left to see a guy dressed in something besides the NPC uniform, presumably the male SSS uniform, along with a huge mallet swinging behind him. The last thing I saw was his blonde hair smash into me.

By the time I woke up, it was already dark. "Hey, dude. You alright? Nanami told me that there was a new boy wandering to the SSS room. Knowing how much of an airhead she was, I thought she wouldn't tell you how to get in. She said your name was, umm, Inazaki Kouhei?"

"Inagaki, but yeah, I guess that's me. What happened?"

"Ito Riku, pleased to meet you. So that door does lead to the SSS room, but you have to say the password or else a huge mallet swings and throws you out of that broken window. You probably figured that much out though. The password is 'No God, No Buddha, No Angels'."

"Wait, you're part of the SSS, right? They look for God and fight an angel. What's with that password?"

"I don't know; we didn't make it. It was made before the leaders founded the current SSS. My best guess is that the last SSS created it."

"Leaders? So there's more than one. Hmm, I guess I should get into the SSS room. Hey, just curious, what does SSS mean anyways?"

"It means War Front of the World of the Dead. Shinda Sekai Sensen in Japanese. I'll actually bring you into the SSS room now, but I can't promise that anyone will be in there. We mainly use it as a meeting room. Different places in school act as hangouts." We went to the principal's office again, said the password, and walked in. It was a simple room, three sofas around a coffee table, a desk, which I presumed to have once been the principal's, and random objects here and there. I immediately picked up that there were only two pieces of technology, a projector and a laptop. The rest were random weapons, trash, and knick knacks. There was also an area cleared out on a sofa. A small girl was sleeping on it. She seemed to be quite young, having one of those faces where she could be anywhere from eight through eleven. Her brown hair was covering most of her face, and it was tangled in her hands. She was sleeping peacefully, but she had a lot of cuts on her legs and arms. I started to walk over, but I tripped over some weird doll on the ground. The sound of me falling must have startled her because when I looked up she was pointing a wooden sword at me. She must have been surprised herself, as she stated, "Ah! New kid! Who are you?" She quickly put her wooden sword away and jumped up. I was still on the floor trying to get up saying, "Inagaki Kouhei. I'm new. I thought everyone here was around the age for high school. Is there a middle school division here too?"

"Nope, I know I look like I'm nine or something, but I'm actually seventeen!"

"... … … excuse me?"

"Hamano Ayaka! I look like I'm nine, but I'm seventeen! My birthday's actually in a week. Assuming I came here the same day I died. So is that my birthday or deathday? What do you think Kouhei?! Ahh, that's not important though, time's boring! Do you like playing? Everyone else here's too serious…" I looked back at Ito in shock because of Hamano's random burst of nonsense. He just glanced back at me with a sheepish smile and took over by saying, "As said, this is Ayaka. I guess she's your hyper kid-sister, even though she's around everyone else's age. Weird how there's only high school student's right?"

"I expected a professional team or something to be taking on God, but instead I meet up with a girl who's an airhead but gets bored really easily, a girl who looks like she's about eight years younger than she really is, and well, you seem to have some maturity at least. Haman-" Hamano put her hand to my mouth and clarified the relationships of the SSS to me. "Not Hamano. Ayaka. You can think as everyone here as friends in death, and friends call each other their given names, right!? Except that Angel guy. He's an enemy in death, I guess. Don't they say keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Should I call him Yuzuru then? Or maybe Yu-chan! That sounds weird; I'll stick with Angel."

Ito, or Riku since Ayaka wanted me to use given names, stopped her there. "Ayaka, if you want a playmate, you shouldn't scare Kouhei off on the first meeting. Kouhei, you probably don't know the time, since you were killed, but it's around one in the morning. Neither of us ate all day, so do you want to sneak in the cafeteria and grab some food? You don't have to go, but feel free. Come on Ayaka, I found an extra meal ticket, if you want it."

"YES! Wait, what is it?"

"Mapo Tofu."

"Ungh, it's spicy!"

"Sucks for you sweety. Just kidding, I have money, you can buy what you want. We'll be going now Kouhei. Later!" I watched them walk out the door. I walked towards the window and saw the baseball field. Since it was night time, I didn't expect there to be anyone on it, but I saw a few NPC's playing baseball. Playing baseball like normal people. As I thought about it, a life like that wouldn't be too bad, but now I'm here fighting an Angel who says he's not an Angel. Better than that, I'm going to be surrounded by some strange people. I knew this much, this is either going to be terrible or awesome. I left the room and climbed up to the roof to get some fresh air. I leaned on the railing and debated jumping off just for the thrill of it. _I should have some fun while I'm here. Why not?_ As I prepared myself to jump, I was startled by a voice behind me musing, "Heh, I didn't actually expect you to come here. I especially didn't expect you to act like you're about to jump off. You might be worse than Hinata."

"Otonashi! Who's Hinata? Another SSS member?"

"Former SSS member. He was part of the first SSS."

"Did you force him to disappear? Are you going to do that to this SSS?"

"You could say I made him disappear, but I didn't force him by any means. He did it in his own free will."  
"Wait, what do you mean? The SSS was made to rebel against you, Angel, Otonashi, Yuzuru, whoever you are! No one should want to disappear, why did he?"

"We all have secrets about our past that we might not want to share yet, secrets outside of our death stories. I'll repeat once again, do not call me Angel. I might just cry if you do."

"Cry?"

"The title of Angel, or student council president, wasn't always mine. I helped the last owner move on too. That's probably the best choice and biggest regret of my afterlife. No matter to you though, why did you come up here? I told you to come up if you wanted to talk to me."

"You never did say that actually. You just told me to come up. I do have some questions though." I looked off into the distance. I saw a lush green forest surrounding the school, but no town or buildings except the school and its facilities. There seemed to be a chill in the air, so I concluded that it was the start of autumn or the end of summer. The wind blew against my face as Otonashi walked up beside me and leaned against the railing. I jumped down from the railing onto the roof and put my back to it. I held my hand up to catch the wind as my uniform rustled in the wind. I sighed and begun to question Otonashi, "I noticed that you're considered the enemy here. I was told that you're trying to force us to move on. I don't exactly know how moving on works, but it probably has to do with fulfilling our life's regret. I noticed this though, when you walked by me for the first time, you didn't try to do anything with Nanami or me. You started walking away, only turning around when Nanami pointed her gun at you. Now I'm curious, do you really want to do anything with us at all?"

"You're sharp in noticing all of that. I see you're also a fast thinker if you were able to shoot my blade right before I stabbed your friend, but you seemed shaky, so I'll assume it was a lucky shot. Back to your original question, I can't really say for the sake of everyone here, but it's better if you were to believe them. If you believe that, you'll be accepted better into the SSS, and I believe that that is the best path for you to choose here. This really does bring up some heavy nostalgia. I want all of you to move on; it's saddening to watch all of you continue to suffer." Otonashi finished his sentence then started to laugh. He hushed himself, but kept a smile and longing eyes on his face. "Otonashi, if you're not an Angel or an NPC, are you a human?" He looked up abruptly before whispering, "Forgive me, this conversation possibly just got dangerous," and he kicked me off the ceiling.

* * *

Wow, I just finished my first chapter of my first fanfic. I'd like to start off by saying thank you for finishing that. I know my writing style tends to be long and drawn out, but I'll see what's reviewed before I make any changes. Along with that, please review, good or bad. I notice that I can't seem to get a grasp on what Otonashi would do in these situations, but then again, he's probably completely different from the anime. I'm also not a supremely creative guy when it comes to creating characters, so it'd be nice if you guys could help. If you want to help, here's a format for how to make a character:

Family name-Given name

Description of personality and any special skills (like how Kouhei's a swimmer or Nanami has very fast reactions)

Weapons (probably a side arm, melee weapon, and maybe a normal firearm.)

Physical description

Regret in life

Special facts (Yui was paralyzed in real life)


	2. Questions, Weapons, and Mapo Tofu

I don't own Angel Beats or any related parties in anyway.

Forgive me for any grammar or spelling mistakes, it's hard to catch them all.

Side note: I will be using the Japanese tradition of using first or last names to resemble closeness, but I won't be adding honorifics mainly because I'm not 100% sure how they all work. The only Japanese I've been exposed to is anime, forgive me.

* * *

Questions, Weapons, and Mapo Tofu

I woke up in the morning to the clamor of students' feet walking by me. I sat up and looked around. I decided to just sit there until most of the students were gone, and when they left, I jumped up. I accidentally bumped into a NPC, and he fell over. "Oh, hey, sorry about that!" I reached my hand out and helped him up. "Sorry about that, are you ok? I jumped up rather quickly there."

"Ahh, yes, I'm fine. Don't worry about it." He began to walk away but walked right into someone else. This someone else had pale, aquamarine hair which was an unnatural color, but his most prominent feature was his eye patch. He wore a deep purple eye patch over his left eye, so I knew he was a human before even noticing his SSS uniform. The bell rang which meant that classes started, and both of us were officially tardy, assuming we don't choose to become absentees. He started to talk, and after just one word I was compelled to listen. He had a deep, resonating voice that almost commanded to be listened too. His aquamarine eye which was just a shade paler than his hair stared right at me. That along with his voice made it feel like he could gain control of my very thoughts. "I believe you heard something just now. What did you hear?"

"The bell which signals the start of class."

"What did I hear?"

"The same thing, unless you're deaf."

"I shall inform you that I am not deaf nor blind. What did I hear?"

"The bell which signals the start of class followed by my response to your first question."

"What do you see?"

"You standing there." _What's with this guy? It's obvious he's a human, but does he know if I'm a human, or does he just do this to random NPC's?_

"What do I see?"

"Me standing here."

"True, what else do I see of that standing person?

"My clothing, my facial features, and any other of my physical aspects."

"I see a human, meaning I do not see a NPC."

"Wait, how did you know? I didn't let out any tell-tale signs. Did someone else tell you?"

"No. What did I not see?"

_Alright. I need to figure out this guy. This is probably some riddle, so let's see if I can figure it out. _I quickly started deducting possibilities._ He hears a bell, sees me standing here, and that means I'm a human. He asked about hearing first, so maybe what he heard was the first sign saying I'm a human. Or maybe not, since he did have to start with something, so it's a fifty-fifty between hearing and sight. He knows I'm a human, which means he knows I'm not an NPC. NPC's are normal students who aren't really humans. I look just like a normal student, for I don't have an SSS uniform. I look like a normal student. I am not a normal student. What's the difference though? Ahh, I see._ "You heard the bell signaling the start of class. You saw me standing here. Normal students should be in class though, but I could just be late, for that's normal. I look like a student, but I don't act like one, for a normal student would run to class after the bell rings. I don't hurry to my classroom when the bell rings, therefore I only look the part, but I don't act it. Everyone here is human or NPC, so since I'm not an NPC, I'm a human."

He looked at me for a few seconds with a blank glare. "Correct. Everyone here is human or NPC. Do we believe that?"

_What else can there be. He is part of the SSS, but we have no evidence that God's here or in some other world. I've only heard of humans and NPC's here, unless Angel isn't a title. Maybe the SSS believes he's seriously an angel. _"Allow me to rephrase my statement. Human, NPC, or Angelic."

"You are right from the eyes of the SSS, yet you don't naturally think of that, therefore you believe Angel is either a human or NPC."

"I see no reason why Otonashi can't be human, but I cannot be sure either."

"You also call him by his name instead of the title we bestowed upon him. I understand now. Thank you and goodbye." With that, he walked past me to the edge of the forest where I could barely see him. The realization that I still was supposed to go to classes came upon me, and I ran into the school. I thought that I didn't know what classroom I was in, but I decided to go with my classroom in real life. I walked up to the door of room 2-2 and reached for the door knob before I heard someone shout, "No! Wait!" I quickly collapsed to the floor in attempt to dodge any huge mallets from smashing into me, but nothing came. I cautiously looked up to the face of a boy who was appeared to be a good three inches taller than me. "Ahh, the last time I heard that warning was in front of the SSS room. You could guess what happened. I'm guessing someone told you I'm a human, or else you wouldn't have shouted any warning. What did you warn me for though?"

"Tch!" He positioned his body to face away from me, but I could tell he was watching me through the corner of his eyes. "Nanami told me. I was also told to warn you not to attend classes. It might make you disappear." He began to turn away and walk, so I tried to remember his face as best I could. He immediately turned around, threw a spare SSS uniform at me, and then began leaving again. "Hey, I'm Inagaki Kouhei, who are you?"

"Jor-never mind," he mumbled before turning at the end of the hall and leaving my sight. _Another strange figure. Is he a mean, antisocial kid? Whatever, I'll figure out who he is later._ I walked into the nearest bathroom and changed, which made me feel like I was being coroneted into the organization. I walked back out and headed back towards the classroom, but then I remembered the kid said I shouldn't attend classes. I debated what to do, so I decided to take a stroll over to the SSS room again.

* * *

"OH! Hey there Kouhei! How's your day been going? I heard you attempted to attend a class! That's so daring! I wanna try with you next time Kouhei! What class are you in? I'll go with you!" Even though I was looking away from the source of the feminine voice, I could tell from the peppiness that it was Ayaka. "Yeah, I didn't know it was so dangerous. I probably won't try again. Sorry Ayaka. You're here again though; do you ever leave this place?"

"You're here again too, so maybe you don't leave this place either. Of course you do though! I leave, but this is pretty much my dormitory."

"Dormitory? You weren't assigned a dorm room?" When I said that, I wondered if I had a dorm room, so I pulled my keys from my pocket, and saw a new key that had the inscription "201" on it. _I'm in room two hundred one in the boy's dorm. I wonder who my roommate is._

Ayaka followed up my question by pulling out a picture. It was of a NPC girl hugging Ayaka tightly and Ayaka looking slightly disgusted but trying to pull off a smile. "This is my NPC roommate in my dorm. She's so stupid. She barely has a personality, and she only talks about stuff like school, sports, and love. It's not too fun. Because of that, I sleep and hangout here a lot."

"Hmm, maybe I'll come visit you more than. This place doesn't seem to have too many visitors. Oh, another question. I met two people before coming here today, but I didn't manage to get either of their names. Could you tell me who they are?"

"Sure! What do they look like?"

"One had pale blue eyes and hair along with a purple eye-patch. The other had short, silvery-white hair, amber eyes, and very pale skin. The second said that his name started with 'Jor', but then he cut himself off."

"Daiki and Jordan! Actually, Inoue Daiki and Ryoichi Hayata. Daiki is one of the two leaders of the SSS. He's very…philosophical, I guess. He likes asking questions and screwing with my mind and it's annoying! But he's actually a very good leader when it comes down to it, so he has my respect. Hayata prefers to be called Jordan, no one ever asked him why though. I'm assuming he blew you off, because he comes off as a pretty cold person. He's actually kind on the inside though. He'll help you if you need it, and he'll kill anyone who hurts his friends, even Angel. He can even manage to pull it off, because he dual wields kodachis and was trained in the art when he was alive by a tutor and his granddaddy, I think. He's really, really good. I think Riku's the only kid who can beat him in this afterlife."

"Riku's that good with his sword? Why doesn't he get sent to kill Angel and find God then?"

"Riku never talked about his life, but I think that he refuses to kill or fatally wound anybody because of his regret, except he'll whack you with his sword if you do something stupid. That's usually me though. It hurts a lot."

"Those cuts on you, they aren't from Riku, are they?"

"Only one or two. They're mainly just cuts I got here and there. I'm weird. Everyone heals when they get hurt or when they die here. I only heal when I die, cuts and wounds don't heal unless I die first."

"Can't you go commit suicide?"

"I only do it once a week. Doing it after every injury is a bit much."

_I can't believe I just suggested something so ridiculous and she just smoothly carried it on. "_Hey Ayaka, you want to go eat?"

"Why? Have you eaten yet?"

"Nope. I still haven't eaten since I got here."

"Nothing?! We should go get you some food so you can become big and strong to protect everybody! Then I can be even lazier! Sleep is fun too. "

* * *

"Ok Kouhei. Here are the rules. In front of us is one plate of the mystery meal each. We both also have one cup of water and one bowl of rice. First to finish the mystery meals wins."

"Umm, it may be a little spicy, seeing it's red, but it's just tofu, right? Why did we make this a competition? And what happens if we win or lose?"

"If I win, you spend more time with me. If you win, I'll pay you for this meal."

"So you did have money?"

"Maybe," she said as she tried to make an innocent smile and look away from me, "alright, when my phone's alarm goes off, we start." I saw the alarm timer to be at one minute. I wasn't sure why we needed so much time to prepare ourselves, but I didn't complain. _Eh, I already said I'd visit her more, so it's not like I have anything to lose._ 5…4…3…2…1…0. The alarm went off and I started to shove the food into my mouth. I covered my nose, so I wouldn't taste anything in case that her plan was to disgust me in order to win, but it actually tasted quite good when I released my nose. I finished the plate in about fifteen seconds and looked up at Ayaka. She was slowly eating some rice, and I stated, "I win." She looked up in disbelief, and after seeing no more food on my plate, she started to look scared.

"Kouhei, I'm sorry."

"Sorry, why? It tasted fine, and tofu's pretty healthy."

"Have the rest of my rice and water."

"Wait, why? I'm fine."

"3…2…1" I just smiled at her skeptically, but after she said one, I figured out what she meant. "AH! Oh my god! AHHHH! What is this!?" I poured one cup of water into my mouth, and poured the other one on my face, but nothing was helping. "What did you just have me eat Ayaka!? This hurts! What's possibly this spicy?!" Ayaka just covered her ears and looked away from me while shouting apologies, but I just wanted more water. I decided to eat the rice, and after eating one bowl, the spicy feeling completely disappeared. "Ayaka, wow, this after taste is amazing. This is blissful. You have to eat some of this. It's actually great. Maybe it's worth the pain, just maybe though."

"You're trying to trick me! I didn't think you'd actually manage to do it!"

"No really, try some!"

"You can eat it if it's really that good!" And so I did. Ayaka looked at me with the face of a mother watching her daughter drown, but I had a slight understanding why. "Kouhei, isn't it spicy?"

"Yes. Unbearably." I said as I put my head on the table and started to cry. "The after taste is amazing though!"

"You are human? Right?"

"To my knowledge, yes." As if on cue, Angel walked into the cafeteria after that question. Ayaka looked down to avoid his gaze, and he walked by our table. He stopped after seeing the two empty bowls before me.

"Umm, you're Hamano, right? If Kouhei crying?"

Ayaka looked up at Otonashi, but then looked away again before saying, "umm, yes Otonashi, I'm Hamano. I think Kouhei's just tearing up."

"Why is he tearing up? Did you just reject him or something?"

"He just finished two plates of mapo tofu in less than two minutes."

"Is he tearing up or is he dead?"

"I'm not too sure anymore. Isn't he already dead though?"

"Haha, yeah, I guess he is. Two plates of it; that might be a record."

"Congratulations Kouhei! You set a record!"

"Thanks Ayaka." I sat up and smiled. _Isn't the SSS against Otonashi? Why does Ayaka talk to him casually? _"Hey Ayaka, you ready to leave yet? I'll wait for you to finish that bowl of rice, or I can buy something else. Or you can buy something with your own money that you refused to use."

"I'll just finish this rice." After that, Otonashi looked at the other tables in the room and sat down with the rest of the student council. I looked back at Ayaka, and she just let out a big sigh of relief. "Kouhei, Angel's scary. Can you protect me from him?"

"What? I come off as a strong guy, but that's because I'm toned for swimming, I don't know how to fight too well. I only have this gun Nanami gave me."

"We can grab a weapon from the SSS room later then!"

"Whatever. Just a question, what do you think of Otonashi?"

"I don't know. The SSS seems to hate him, so I should hate him. He doesn't seem like a bad guy though. He's friendly when we're not fighting. I wish we could all be like that. Wouldn't that be nice?"

I thought about what Ayaka said. _So she doesn't hate Angel either. Why is she here though? Angel is how to get to God, shouldn't she want to get to Angel and force the passage to God? Unless she's like me._ "Ayaka, why are you here?" She looked up at me with a depressed look on her face. Her ever-lasting smile was turned into a frown, and the glisten in her green eyes disappeared. She just looked at her rice and nothing else. "Ayaka, I'm sorry! This must be a touchy subject. You don't need to talk about it!"

"I'm here because I was mean. That's all." _Because she was mean. That means she doesn't blame God. So why did she join the SSS, since it was made as a warfront against God, which was in turn a war against Otonashi. _Ayaka finished her rice and nodded her head at the exit. We both got up, and left the cafeteria. I was walking in front of her, but I decided to turn around and say something to her. "Ayaka, I'm sorry. You don't have to talk about it," I grabbed her hand and gently squeezed it as I said, "but if you ever want to talk to someone, you can talk to me, alright?" Her eyes began to show a few tears, but she smiled and made a sound of acknowledgement.

* * *

We went back into the SSS room, and Ayaka, returned to her normal self, announced, "Inagaki Kouhei! This is the SSS room. We have a lot of random stuff. You are part of the SSS. Feel free to take some random stuff from this stash of random stuff!"

I nodded and looked for some type of melee weapon. There were a lot of blades, but not many stood out. I picked up an axe, but it felt too clumsy and I put it down. I found a dagger, but the hilt felt too short for me to hold. I rummaged through, and found a two handed long sword, but it just felt too long for me, so I dropped it back on the ground. I began to become conscious of Ayaka watching me, so I turned around and asked, "Hey, do you have any tips for what to pick? I've never used a weapon before. Guns are simple enough, aim and shoot, but do you have any tips for close range weapons?"

"I prefer guns; I only use my bokken to create a little distance or when it's just a small thing between friends! Because of that, I'm not too great with close range. For the best advice, ask Jordan or Riku, but I will say that you should probably pick something that isn't too heavy or big, since you don't have much mastery with blades."

"Thanks Ayaka." With that, I kept on searching. As I went through the room, I noticed a weapon that caught my eye because of how amusing it was. I picked up the huge halberd, and admired it, even though I had already denied the idea of me using it. As I looked at the handle, there was a small engraving on it. I peered closely at it and saw "Yurippe-Noda-SSS" I pondered it for a few seconds, and I thought that maybe it already belonged to someone. "Hey Ayaka, do you know who Yurippe or Noda are?"

"You're not the first person to notice the engraving. None of us know who Yurippe or Noda are. Our best guess is that they were part of the first SSS, but we don't have much information on them. The only information we have is what was in this room when we first arrived."

"We first arrived? So you were one of the original members of the second SSS?"

"Yeah! With Daiki! It was so boring back then because Daiki is all like, "What do you see? What do you want? What do you hear?" and I don't know what to say because it's too much thinking! Kouhei! Do you think Daiki's annoying?"

"Wait, you and Daiki?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that? I'm not dating him or anything."

"There are two SSS leaders."

"Yeah, what's wrong with that? It's a lot for one person."

"You're the other leader of the SSS?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that? I'm not that lazy or anything."

"Yes you are."

"Ok, yes I am, but I don't really lead as much as create. I know I seem to have no attention span and not too smart or anything, but I'm actually the person who creates almost all of the team's tactics and war plans. I'm good at it too; I've never lost a game of chess, shogi, or anything before." _A little girl who looks nine is actually a genius at tactics, war, and board games. I feel like this girl should be enough for Nanami to stay amused._ "That's actually really surprising Ayaka. I'll be honest; I wasn't expecting that from you."

"We don't have many large scale missions where I'm needed, so I spend a lot of time lazing around. It's so much easier than what Daiki does."

"That's probably true. You said we don't have any information on the SSS, right?"

"Yeah, except the room and the items in this room." _That's ridiculous. The SSS was a serious organization, because we were based on them. How could they leave such a small impact? _"Then how did you guys know about the existence of the SSS in the first place and its goals and such?"

"Well, the second time Daiki and I, actually Jordan and Nanami were there by then, went in, there was a note on the laptop. It talked a lot about the SSS. I don't know who gave it to us though. All the SSS members are gone to our knowledge, unless one passed on the day Daiki and I arrived. The note even said that the original SSS was bigger and better than the current one!" _There has to be more. Such an organization couldn't possibly have just disappeared without a trace. There may be relics like this halberd, but there has to be more. Written records. _"Ayaka, what was in here the second time you came?"

"Nothing much. The halberd, a few dolls, the table, the coffee table, a few sofas, the projector, and laptop. Why?"

"Was there anything in the dolls or laptop?"

"We checked, nothing in the dolls, and we only found a few documents that obviously showed that it belonged to the principal. It was recently used though, so it couldn't have been too long since the last SSS left."

I quickly started deducting possibilities. _Nothing at all? That can't be right, there's no way. My best guess would have been the laptop, but it belonged to the principal. The principal's a grown man, and all humans are high school students, so the principal must have been an NPC. NPC's don't understand weird things though. The laptop belonged to the principal, so obviously the principal used it. The laptop was recently used. I won't ask how that was possibly figured out, but I'll trust it. Therefore, the principal was at his desk using it. Maybe the principal did have something to do with the SSS._ "Ayaka, maybe the principal knows something about the SSS. His computer is in the SSS room and it was recently used."

"We asked him. He said that he never heard of such a group, so either he forgot because he has to be normal, for he's an NPC, or he truly has nothing to do with the SSS."

_It's better to assume he has nothing to do with it, because it's useless if he forgot. The principal has nothing to do with the SSS; therefore he would only know things that non-SSS members know. This room has all the information of the past SSS in existence. This room is the principal's office. The principal's office is famous for having people flying out the window. People fly out of the window because they don't know the password. The password is SSS information. A non-SSS member would not know the password. The principal is a non-SSS member. The principal cannot enter this room. His laptop is in this room. It has been recently used. The principal was not the user._

"Ayaka, did the laptop have a password?"

"Of course it did, but Riku's really good with computers actually! He just hacked in, but when I looked, I just found principal junk."

"How hard did you look?"

"I looked as hard as I could!"

"Did Riku look?"

"No, he trusted me. Do I not seem like a trustable person?"

"You did trick me into eating a plate of mapo tofu, but I want Riku to check on this."

"Why? Riku's good with computer, but we comprehend information the same."

"True, but what if you didn't get all the information?"

"What do you mean?"

"This room is protected by that password and hammer. Why did they need protection though? There was nothing valuable to be stolen outside of weapons, but there weren't too many stocked here. There's no point in protecting ourselves from injury and death because we cannot die here. So what is it? Information. Where is that information though? I think it's in the computer. This information was hidden though, and someone put up that principal's computer identity as another layer of protection. We need someone who can hack into computers. Riku can do that apparently."

"He told me not to bother him today, so I'll ask him tomorrow! Kouhei, you're interesting. I'm one of the two leaders because I can make plans and tactics, but you can solve problems. I overheard your conversation with Daiki earlier today too. You may have been the first person to figure him out. You may be an important asset to the SSS; we may have to rely on you a lot. Be ready for that. Back to our first problem though, have you found a weapon yet?"

"No, I haven't; I'll start searching again. I noticed something else too. You're not acting like your usual self. You're more serious than you usually are. Why?"

I picked up a musketeer sword, but it just felt way too cumbersome to carry around in the first place. "I get more serious when the topic actually matters." I put it down and started swinging around a nunchaku that I found lying around. "I'll get more serious at stuff like the first SSS, death stories, or battles." I wacked myself with it, so I put it down and picked up two katanas, thinking that I could try dual-wielding too. "In fights too, I'll take out both my guns in seriousness and shoot!" As she said shoot, she actually did shoot both her guns right pass me. Instinctively, I dropped the katana in my right hand, reached for my gun, and jumped forward. I spun in the air and landed with one katana in a defensive pose in front of my face and the gun pointing at the source of the gun shot. "Woah! Kouhei! That looks so cool! We have a few people who wield two swords or two guns, but you look so awesome with one sword and one gun at the same time! You can do cool stuff like run up at Angel, jump, do a 360, and slice his gun in half! Then you can just shoot him point blank on the spot! You'll be so cool! Keep it Kouhei! It seems natural for you too!"

"Ahh, sorry about that. It was instinctive. You're right though, this feels right. I'll keep it. I see you're back to your normal self though. Did my little jump there inspire you that much?"

I found a sheath and latched it onto my back. As I put my new katana into it, Ayaka confessed, "When I see something that looks really cool or cute or something, I can't always help it. Not a good trait for a leader, right? Hehe…"

"Don't worry about it. You're good with people, and apparently you're good with planning. I think you're probably a great leader."

"Thanks Kouhei. I'm gonna play outside. See ya!" As she left, I wondered about what to do. I heard a bell ring, so I checked the time. It appeared as classes just ended. _I appeared in this world at the swimming pool, so this place probably has a swim team. I'll check it out. Maybe I can get myself recruited._

* * *

I walked over to the pool, but I only saw one kid swimming in it. I thought that he was probably just a recreational swimmer, but I decided to talk to him. I walked over to the edge of the pool, and tapped his back when he touched the wall. He looked up at me and kept silent. "Umm, hello. I'm just wondering if there was a swim team in this school."

"So you're a human? SSS uniform and doesn't even know if this school has a swim team."

"Oh, are you human too?"

"You'd only imagine so if I know what the SSS is. I'm Yamamoto Ryouta. Do you swim?

"Yeah, why?

"See that small building over there?" He pointed at a small complex that looked I never noticed before. "It's the male locker room. There are new suits in there; now get in here and race me."

I looked over, nodded, and walked in. It was a small locker room, but it was kept quite well. I noticed that everything seemed pretty new, so I guessed that there wasn't a swim team. I saw a box near the corner, and opened it to find swimming gear. I found my size and opened the packaging to find a purely black jammer. I undressed, threw my clothes into a locker, and put it on. I found a pair of goggles in the box too and went back outside.

The air was a bit chilly, so I jogged over to the pool and jumped in. The pool was freezing, but I knew that was normal. A little warm up would make me feel fine. "Hey Ryouta, I'll warm up a bit first, alright?"

"Yeah, sure. I want to win a fair match."

I started swimming a few laps, and found that I was still in great shape. After swimming around twenty laps, I got up and asked Ryouta, "Hey, what's the pool length?"

"It's a twenty five yard, six lane pool." I thought it was a yards pool, which I found interesting because most Japanese pools were in meters. "Is this an American school? We use the metrics system in Japan. Or are we not technically in Japan anymore?"

"I seriously have no idea; I can only say that this is the afterlife. You ready to race?"

"Sure." We both jumped out of the pool and shook hands. As I stood in front of the block, I touched the rough surface of it, and felt the familiar prickle of the start to all of my races. I inhaled the cool air deeply, smelling the dank smell of chlorine and the pleasing autumn foliage. I felt the breeze blow through my hair as it cooled my body before the race. The turquoise water rippled as I dipped my goggles into it, but the ripples subsided after the perfect circles grew. The white lane lines bobbed up and down, up and down as the water rocked back and forth, but the four pool walls held sturdy in place as the water splashed onto its sides. Ryouta and I walked up to lanes three and four respectively, and Ryouta announced, "Event number 1, this will be the first and last event of the meet. This will be a one hundred yard freestyle race. In lane three is returning swimmer Yamamoto Ryouta and in lane four is new swimmer, umm, what's your name?"

"Inagaki Kouhei."

"New swimmer Inagaki Kouhei! I will set press the timer which will beep about five seconds after pressed. The beep will be the signal to start. Take your marks!" Ryouta pressed the timer as we both went down to get into starting positions. I snickered a little bit at Ryouta's attempt to act like an official, but when the timer beeped, we both leaped off in full seriousness.

"Dammit! I didn't think there was a single person who could beat me in the place! I have to be the fastest! Dammit."

"Apparently I can beat you though. Don't get so mad though."

"Eh, sorry. I get really mad when I lose. No hard feelings though, it's my motivation. I think you did that in forty three second right there though. That's ridiculous for a high school student! Were you a professional before you died or something? "

"You probably got a forty four, which isn't bad by any means either. No, I wasn't a professional. You?"

"I wish."

Both Ryouta and I were walking back to the main building after our race. We were both surprised that somebody this fast happened to be in the afterlife school at the same time, but we took it as a good source of competition. I won against Ryouta by about half a second, but we both crawled out gasping. We just lay in the cold air for a minute, but we both realized that we were going to catch a cold, so we shuffled to the locker room and wrapped ourselves in towels that also happened to be in the box. After we were dry, we got back into our SSS uniforms and started walking.

"So Ryouta, is there a swim team here or not? You never answered me"

"Yeah, but they use the indoor pool. I said I wouldn't join unless I could get a more individualized practice since I was a lot faster than anyone there, but the coach said he would only individualize practices for groups of two or more. If you come with me, we might be able to. You want to?"

"Later, I'm a little worn out. He'll want to test how fast I am, and I'm a bit too fatigued to go another forty three second."

"Alright, I'm going to go eat. How about you?"

"I'll head to the SSS room. I said I'd spend more time with Ayaka, and that's probably where she is."

"She spends a lot of time in there, but not all of it. Don't get too lovey-dovey. See you."

"Hey, I just got here. I'm not in that type of relationship."

"So you're gay?"

"Shut up."

* * *

I got to the door and looked at it for a few seconds. "No God, No Buddha, No Angels." I opened the door to the leader.

"Daiki! I didn't expect you here."

"Why did you come?"

_Oh God, another series of random questions. This'll amuse me until Ayaka comes back though, so why not? _"I came in search of Ayaka."

"That is not what I meant. I shall guide you to the correct answer this way. How do you know Ayaka?"

_The correct question? He asked why I came, why I came, what other answer could I have besides my motive for coming?_ "Umm, I ran into Riku who introduced me to Ayaka when we entered this room."

"How do you know Riku?"

_Does he want to know about all of my relationships now? What does he want?_ "When I appeared here, Nanami found me, and she told me where the SSS room was. As I opened the door, Riku tried to warn me about the password and mallet, but he was too late. I got to know him a bit after we woke up."

"How do you know Nanami?"

_He really does want to know about all my relationships. _"She was the first person to find me as a human when I appeared in the pool."

"Why were you in the pool?"

_How am I supposed to know why I appeared in the pool? Maybe because I died by drowning. _"I died by drowning, so I guess it is appropriate that I came here in the water."

"True, but why were you in a pool belonging to this school?"

_I was starting to get a little confused. He was asking me these questions because I couldn't correct answer why I came here. What does this school's pool have to do with me coming here at all? Or any of the other questions at all?_ I quickly started deducting possibilities. _There's a difference between a pool and the pool belonging to the school because Daiki had to add that on to make me answer correctly. What's special about this school? It's a normal school with classes, clubs, students, teachers, and such. If the school itself isn't what Daiki was talking about, then maybe it's the school's situation. It has two pools, so it's probably a rich school, not like there's anything to buy from in this world. In this world. This school is in this world. This world is not the normal world, it's the afterlife. This isn't where everyone goes, only people with regrets. There's no way Daiki could know though, is there?_

"I was in the pool belonging to this school because I died with regrets."

"That is what I originally wanted. Now here is the follow up. Do you believe what you just said?"

"Yes."

"I don't believe you, nor does Otonashi."

"What!? You were talking with Otonashi?!"

"I will keep all I found out and all you said a secret. I don't believe you're truly motivated in the SSS. You don't have a regret."

* * *

Well, there's the second chapter. A little more than six thousand words. I must say, writing and thinking of my own ideas is hard. Ten thousand words in less than a week might not be a great idea. I sense a huge writer's block coming up. That with a huge load of school work that just got on me is going to have my update much, much slower. Man, this chapter had a lot of dialogue though. Consider these two uploads in such close time a grand opening event :D

I'm not a supremely creative guy when it comes to creating characters, so it'd be nice if you guys could help. If you want to help, here's a format for how to make a character:

Family name-Given name

Description of personality and any special skills (like how Kouhei's a swimmer or Nanami has very fast reactions)

Weapons (probably a side arm, melee weapon, and maybe a normal firearm.)

Physical description

Regret in life

Special facts (Yui was paralyzed in real life)

You can also always give ideas for what should happen in this story. I have very little of the story thought out, only a few important events. Feel free to review or PM anything. Thank you for reading!


	3. Walking to Unfulfilled Ambitions

I don't own Angel Beats or any related parties in anyway.

Forgive me for any grammar or spelling mistakes, it's hard to catch them all.

Side note: I will be using the Japanese tradition of using first or last names to resemble closeness, but I won't be adding honorifics mainly because I'm not 100% sure how they all work. The only Japanese I've been exposed to is anime, forgive me.

* * *

Walking to Unfulfilled Ambitions

I was shooting at cans to train my accuracy, because I decided that I should at least try to help the SSS in the fight against Otonashi. My hand was much steadier, but that was probably because I wasn't shooting at a human being. As I posed for my next shot, I heard a gunshot come from my right. Before I could react, my gun was shot out of my hand, but it fell on the floor unbroken. I heard a small thud come from the same area, so I looked over to find Nanami and Riku.

"Nanami, you could have just killed him there."

"Yeah, but you shouldn't have hit me with your sword. You know it hurts. I didn't have anything better to train on at the moment. It's not like he would have died."

"I would have died. I just would have come back a few minutes later." I grabbed my gun from the ground and walked over to the other two. "Where are you two going?"

"We just found each other wandering around and wanted to talk; so nowhere in particular, although Nanami now wants to go have fun somewhere. You know how she is; always bored."

"Yeah. Oh yeah, Riku, did Ayaka tell you about the computer yet?"

"Oh! Thanks for reminding me. She told me that if I ran into you, I should tell you to go up to discuss the findings."

I looked over at Nanami who still had a bored expression on her face, but I saw a slight twinkle in her eye that began to worry me. "Hey Nanami, what are you thinking about?"

"You."

"Don't make it sound like you love me."

"Kouhei, go on a date with me."

"Eh! What? We just met each other a few days ago! I can't do something like that!" I looked away from her in embarrassment, but she still just looked at me with a bored expression.

"Why?"

"Kouhei, are you taking Nanami seriously? She'll do a lot of random stuff to amuse herself."

"…I'm going to go see Ayaka now. Bye." I jogged away from them and ran up the stairs to get out of their sight. I knew that I shouldn't have taken Nanami seriously, but I couldn't help but to do so. Before I entered the SSS room, I decided to grab a can of coffee from a vending machine. I put in the money, but when the can hit the bottom of the machine, I heard a few footsteps approach from behind me.

"Hey Kouhei! Canned coffee here is the best, isn't it?"

I turned around to meet Otonashi's smiling face. "Otonashi. I've wanted to talk to you for a little bit now. Are you free?"

"I told you, if you want to find me, I'll probably be on the roof. There or the student council room. Are you free though; you seemed in a bit of a hurry?"

"I wanted to talk to you alone, not surrounded by the rest of the student council, and I couldn't find you on the roof. You're right though, I have to go see Ayaka. Can you meet me on the roof in maybe half an hour?"

"Sure. Helping my peers is my job, right?" I opened up the coffee and took a gulp. It was very bitter. It also happened to be very cold, which wasn't exactly what I wanted during the time in autumn. I offered it to Otonashi, so he took it and drank it down quickly. He didn't seem to be bothered by the taste or temperature. I looked at him one last time before I turned and ran up the stairs. The image was burnt into my head though. His demeanor was powerful, but not in the same way as Daiki. Otonashi came off as a teacher to me, while Daiki was more of a leader in a revolution, which was quite accurate. What made me more curious were his facial expressions. He always appeared calm, but he also gave out an aura of pain. He usually was smiling, but I knew he felt sad. He seemed to appear as everything he wasn't. Lost in my thought, I reached the door to the SSS room. I opened the door to see Ayaka taking another nap.

"Ayaka, are you awake?" She didn't stir, so I decided to rap on the door with my knuckles, but she gave off no signs. I walked over to her, cleared a small portion of the rubble beside her and sat down. I put my arm behind the chair and surveyed the room. Not much changed since the last time I came. I saw the computer was open. I sat down on the principal's chair and looked at the document on hand. There was a simple list of seemingly strange operations. "Operation Monster Stream, Operation Tornado, Angel's Assault Operation, Guild Descent Operation. Hmm, there's even one in fine print. What is this…Operation High Tension Syndrome. Weird names." I heard the door open again, so I looked up from the computer screen and saw Nanami standing there. "Kouhei, are you cheating on me with Ayaka?"

"I'm not even dating you in the first place, so I couldn't even if I wanted to."

"You're not going to steal a kiss from her either?"

"What type of person do you take me to be?"

"A gay person, apparently."

"I'm really not gay. Do you have to be in a relationship to not seem homosexual in this world?" She didn't respond, but rather walked up to where Ayaka was sleeping. She sat down where I cleared the rubble and started to sing a lullaby. I smiled at them. _Doesn't Nanami know that you sing people to sleep, not while they're asleep? _ I didn't stop her because I found that the whole scene was surprisingly cute to watch. When Nanami finally finished, she walked next to me and looked at the computer screen. She took the laptop away from me and fumbled a bit with the machine until a new document was open. We read it together; the title was "Angel". As we read through, it was about what the first SSS discovered about Angel. It talked about her blank personality, resistance to pain, skills, and downfall. It ended with, "After we got her to fail her tests, Angel's position as Student Council President was evoked. Soon afterwards, Otonashi-" then it just ended. I looked over at Nanami who actually seemed genuinely excited for this. She responded to my glance with, "Kouhei! It just ends with Angel doing something! What do you think he did? Maybe he massacred the whole SSS at that moment so they couldn't write anymore!"

"Yeah, maybe." _No, that can't be it. Throughout the whole document, Angel has just been Angel. Why would it randomly reference Angel as Otonashi? He was a whole separate entity. _I remembered what he said about how Angel and Student Council President weren't always his titles. _Who is this Angel? And why does this Angel seem so similar to Otonashi?_

"Why are you here anyways? You were looking for something fun to do, right?"

"Riku told me how there was new information about the SSS in this room. It sparked my interest. That's all."

I stared at her for a few seconds, but I realized that that was an answer that could be expected of Nanami. "Alright then. Got any more interesting information to pull out of that?"

"Let's see." Her hands flew on the keyboard, and soon after, a new document popped up. The title was "Angel Player".

_Angel Player appears to be the source of Angel's mysterious powers. Personally, I'm not too sure what to think of this, but I've concluded that this means her powers aren't God given. Although there is the chance that God gave Angel the Angel Player, it is quite minimal due to how disturbingly easy it was to hack into it and the fact that it had a manual. The manual was written in English, so no one I brought could read it, but it means that Angel probably knows English. She has no use of it, saying everyone in her society uses Japanese, so it raises the question of what her purpose is._

_The Angel Player itself seems to grant a variety of powers. The most obvious ones that The SSS and I have encountered were probably Hand Sonic and Overdrive. Although Hand Sonic simply summons blades, Overdrive can give Angel superhuman strength, speed, and reactions. Personally, I find the second much more dangerous. There were several others, but the one that I would like to keep note of here was Harmonics. It appears as though Angel has given herself the ability to create clones. Although I have yet to notice Angel use it, I find this quite hazardous to everyone._

I stopped reading there to ask Nanami a few questions. "Nanami, didn't Otonashi say Hand Sonic before the two blades came from his arms? Do you think Otonashi can use these other two skills too?"

"I believe that he already uses overdrive. You could tell that my reactions were fast, but his were just on a completely new level. His ease in fighting could be due to super strength, and he runs abnormally fast for a human. I'm not too sure about Harmonics though. There's never been a report of two Angels at once, but we can't rule the possibility out."

"I see." I remembered my promise to him, so I quickly blurted out, "Nanami, I have somewhere to be. Take care of Ayaka, alright?" I began to walk out, but then Ayaka finally stirred. "Oh, Kouhei. I didn't know you were here. You didn't do anything to me while I was asleep, did you?"

"Why am I immediately questioned instead of Nanami? She'd probably do something weird to amuse herself."

"Ayaka! Kouhei was terrible! I had to stop him from practically raping you in your sleep!"

"No, I didn't do anything. Nanami, why are you such a bully?"

"No one believes me."

"And no one finds that surprising with how bad of a liar you are."

I shook my head and walked up to the roof. Otonashi was standing there. "Yo, Kouhei, what did you want to talk about?"

"Mainly you and your past. Do you keep track of what happens in the SSS?"

"Not anymore, I did with the first SSS."

"What was the first SSS to you?"

"A group of really strange people. Really strange, but really nice too."

"Do the names Yurippe or Noda mean anything to you?"

"How did you find those names?"

"I found them on an engraving on a halberd in the SSS room."

"I see. Can you keep this a secret from the current SSS?"

"Why?"

"It's just better if you did. I'll trust you. They were members of the first SSS. Yurippe was the leader and co-founder with Hinata, the guy I told you about earlier. They weren't co-leaders like Hamano and Inoue though. Only Yurripe was a leader; she was the best leader I've ever seen though. She also was a pretty great fighter. She could stand in hand-to-hand combat with the last Angel. Your Riku wouldn't even have a chance. Noda was just some member who had a hopeless crush on Yurippe. He always carried that halberd around and tried to protect Yurippe. I didn't take him seriously; I doubt anyone did actually."

"Otonashi, you seem to know the original SSS pretty well, yet you don't know us too well apparently. You figured out a few of our names, but not really. I feel like the most logical conclusion would be that you were part of the SSS at some point in time. Is that true?"

"Why does that matter? I'm fighting the SSS; do you think I would fight an organization I was part of?"

"True that. I just thought that it was possible."

"Do possibilities matter when you're looking for the truth?"

"All truths are a possibility; they just happen to be the correct possibility."

"You're starting to sound like Inoue."

"I'll take that as a compliment." We stood there looking at the scenery again. It had only been around a week since the last talk we had here, but I felt as though a lot was changing. The leaves were starting to become noticeable shades of orange, red, and brown. I looked over at the setting sun, but Otonashi was standing right in front of it. "Kouhei, if you don't have anything to talk about, I have to go do stuff for the student council."

"Ahh, sorry. I got lost in thought for a moment there. Umm…when you fought Nanami, you said something like "Hand Sonic", and then two blades came out of your arms. I found some information which told me that you can probably do other things with that. Angel Player, I believe it's called."

"Yes, I currently have possession of Angel Player. The last Angel taught me how to use it, but I never actually used it until you guys started attacking me. At first, I was annoyed, but then I realized that it was only natural. I understand your side perfectly."

"That may be hard to fight against. The last one is more of a request. Tell me about the last Angel."

Otonashi clearly looked startled, but instead of talking, he glanced at his watch. "I need to go back to the student council room."

"Yeah, go for it." As Otonashi left, I began to think for myself. _So he's avoiding the topic. That or maybe he really just needs to go back, but I doubt it. Hmm…Otonashi has to be a human. He wasn't always an Angel, and the old SSS recognized his existence. Why is he still here though? Was he a helper to Angel? Or was he a human who sided with the Angel of that time instead of the SSS? I can't figure him out._

* * *

I went to my room and fell on my bed. I knew there was probably more information on the original SSS that I could find out if I went back to the meeting room, but I wasn't up for that. I slowly dozed off and started to dream. I found myself sitting in the SSS room. Strangely enough, I didn't recognize anyone there. I looked around some more, and realized I did recognize somebody. There appeared to be a younger version of Otonashi there. I didn't see him though; I just knew he was there. I tried to look around for him, but I couldn't find him. I scratched my head, and a lock of hair fell onto my eyes. My hair wasn't the regular black color and it was longer than usual. I looked at a showcase on the side of the room, but I was really looking at my reflection on the glass. I was Otonashi. I unconsciously directed my attention to a girl with purple hair who appeared to be the leader. _The leader, is this the Yurippe that Otonashi talked about? If so, he said that Noda always carried around the halberd._ Before I started to look around, I heard the girl say, "Ok everyone! We're here to talk about how to fight Angel. Shoot out some suggestions! Now!"

A guy around my age quickly stood up and shouted, "Yurippe! I propose that we all rush her at once to defeat her!" He flipped his short, purple hair to appear cool and continued with, "and if she dares to attack you, I'll protect you with this very halberd." He grabbed the very familiar halberd and spun it around his head. I noticed movement from the corner of my eye and looked over. I saw a girl whose lower face was wrapped with something that looked like a scarf. After looking for a second, I was able to see that she didn't even have a face, but rather a blank place where the face should have been. It looked scary, but I didn't feel scared at all. I was just curious. She pulled out a throwing knife and threw it at the halberd. "How shallow-minded." As the knife made contact, the halberd spun out of control and hit Noda in the back of the head. He fell over unconscious, so I looked around to see who would help. No one even made a move to help him, but even more importantly, I saw that there were few people with faces. The leader had one, the unconscious guy had one, some laughing kid who was sitting on the sofa had one, and I had one. The girl in the front continued with, "Denied, Noda."

The scene was clear, but the sounds started to become blurry. I randomly heard Ayaka shout, "Kouhei! Get down!" I looked up into Ayaka's eyes and attempted to duck. My body wouldn't respond though. I saw my own body in between my eyes and Ayaka. She pointed two guns at me and exclaimed, "Angel! Die!" I felt the pain of two bullets, but I couldn't tell where they hit. I saw Ayaka keep shooting, but I felt nothing. I heard voices though. Many voices were going through my head. It sounded like Otonashi, but I knew that it wasn't. They all said, "Stop! I am not your enemy!"

I closed my eyes and shouted at the top of my lungs, "Stop! I am not your enemy!" When I opened my eyes, I saw Nanami and Daiki. Their weapons were on the ground. I saw Daiki look away, as if he lost at some competition and was pouting. Nanami ran up and embraced me. I just felt surprised.

I heard knocking. I looked around and raised a gun. Everything started fading all of a sudden. I woke up and saw Jordan at the door. "Hey, Kouhei. There's a meeting. You know where to go." I got up and looked down the hall. I saw Jordan's back walking towards the main building. _How did he know where I lived? _I started to change into street clothing, because I didn't particularly like the SSS uniform. As I changed, I thought about what I saw in the dream. It was already becoming fuzzy, but I remembered some parts. _Weird dream. A dream's a dream though. There isn't any actual symbolism or meaning to dreams, are there?_ I walked out the door, but before I left the dormitory, I realized the situations I was in. I came to the conclusion that I shouldn't trust the dreams, but they would give me another view of the battles.

I walked outside and came across Riku. "Riku! You heading to the room too?"

"Yeah, but you were invited? Daiki and Ayaka only invite the people that are needed for the operation. You're new; I guess they see some potential in you."

"Potential? Who knows? Operation?"

"Ahh, your first one. We just do things as a team, normally to fight Angel, but we have other goals sometimes."

I remembered the first document I saw. "Do the operations have names?"

"Yeah, we repeat a lot of them."

"Which one are we doing this time?"

"Ayaka found some new operations, apparently from the computer."

* * *

Riku and I opened the door. Daiki, Ayaka, and Ryouta were in the room. I looked around and remembered that Jordan left before me. "Hey, where's Jordan?"

Daiki opened his mouth, but Ayaka noticed and quickly started talking to avoid Daiki's string of questions. "He went to find the other two people we want for this operation."

"Who?"

"Nanami and Mariko. Do you know Mariko?"

"No, who's that?"

"You'll meet her."

"Alright Ayaka, but what are we going to do?" Jordan walked into the door followed by Nanami. Ayaka praised Jordan, hugged Nanami, and asked, "Jordan, where's Mariko?"

Nanami answered for Jordan by saying, "She's already at the site. What was it? Operation Monster Stream, right?" I heard the name and recognized it from the document that Nanami and I saw. I remembered that Ayaka was the leader in planning, so I directed my question at her. "Ayaka, this is an operation that the original SSS did. What is it and why are we doing it?"

"Kouhei! You read it?! That's top-secret information! You might accidentally spill it to a NPC who gives it to Otonashi who might use the information to kill us all!"

"Do you really not trust me at all? And we can't die anyways."

"No, it's ok! I'm going to explain it now!" she exclaimed with a really happy smile. Everyone laughed or at least smiled at Ayaka's random outburst, everyone except Nanami. Ayaka noticed before saying, "Nanami, before I explain, you have to at least smile too!" Everyone just stood there staring at Nanami. "Amuse me and I'll smile."

"My randomness isn't enough to amuse you!?"

"No, I've seen enough of it."

"I don't know what else to do though! And I can't explain until she smiles!"

Daiki stepped in, but instead of helping Ayaka, he simply asked, "Why must her happiness affect your ability in explanation?"

"It just does!"

"It may, but I command that you explain the reasoning behind it."

I noticed that Ayaka was getting jumpy, so I stopped the argument by responding to Nanami. "Nanami, I'll take you up on that date." What I expected happened. Nanami jumped up in a surprised manner with a smile. "Now I can do anything I want with you!"

"I'm just kidding. You smiled though, so Ayaka, what is this operation and why are we doing it?"

Nanami looked at me with longing eyes that almost broke me down. I compromised with her by promising to spend some time with her for the coming week.

Ayaka continued with, "Anyways, we're doing some operation that sounded super cool! Operation Monster Stream!" She started to walk out the room, but I grabbed her from behind and turned her around. "Ayaka, as I asked before, what is Operation Monster Stream and why are we doing it?"

"Oh, you want me to explain? Umm…do you know how to fish?"

"It's not too hard, why?"

"We're just going fishing."

"Normally I'd scream or something, but this whole world is crazy, so alright. Why are we doing it?"

"Maybe we'll learn something about the original SSS if we do their operations! We can be all cool and original like them! Then we can defeat Angel like them!" _Ayaka, I would hate to break it to you, but there's no proof that they ever succeeded, in fact, they probably failed from what I heard from Otonashi._ "Alright, so it's you, Daiki, Riku, Jordan, Ryouta, Nanami, this Mariko girl, and me? Why us?"

"Daiki and I are leaders, Riku apparently likes to fish, you and Ryouta can swim, in case something bad happens, Nanami has really good reactions, and you'll understand why Mariko when you see."

"Ryouta and me because we're swimmers. It's a stream, what bad things could possibly happen? And what about Jordan?"

"It is called monster stream! Maybe there's a giant fish in there that could throw everyone in the air and eat us all! We bring Jordan everywhere, trying to get up to open up, because he's always so lonely and mean! I believe that he's really nice though!" Jordan looked away, almost bashful, at the statement.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever, let's go."

* * *

Outside the room, Otonashi was eavesdropping. When he realized everyone was leaving, he leaped out the window and did a perfect roll onto the ground. He started to talk to himself, "A giant fish that could throw everyone in the air and eat us all. You'd be surprised how accurate that was, Ayaka. I want to watch this though; maybe I should set up a video camera in Wakahiko's tent to see what happens. It's been nostalgic watching Kouhei."

* * *

The crew was walking down the path to the river, but everyone seemed a little tense. I saw that in the front, Daiki was striding with his hand on his Uzi, while Ayaka had her hands pressed to her skirt. I saw that she was easily able to reach for her gun, and I noticed that she actually had one on each leg. _Another dual wielder. Nanami with two knives, Ayaka with two guns, and me with one blade and one sword. Riku and Jordan are both really good swordsmen. And Otonashi can still fend us off; who is that guy?_ "Why's everyone so tense?" I asked.

Riku answered me. "This is our first time on this operation. There might be traps like the huge mallet in front of the room."

"And what can reaching for out guns do about that?"

"Nothing at all. We're just naturally tense at something like this."

"Do we even have fishing rods and the such?" We all stopped walking. Nanami flashed a smile and everyone started laughing. After a minute, Riku came back to his senses and repeated, "really, do we have equipment to go fishing? Or do we have to make it out of the dirt?"

When I heard that, I had no idea what he meant. I understood that we could possibly get bait from the dirt, but fishing rods? That seemed strange. Most people don't bury fishing rods in the ground. "What do you mean by 'out of the dirt'?"

"We quite literally mean that we're going to take dirt and make fishing rods. Do you know about guild?"

"Guild? Never heard of them."

"Think about this. To the eyes of a third party, this is a normal school except for the fact that there are no other buildings anywhere besides the school and its facilities. No factories, no shops, nothing. Where in school are we getting guns and swords and other types of equipment from?"

"A metal working class?"

"That's a lot of weapons for one class. It's a branch of the SSS called The Guild, by far the largest branch. It's practically a huge manufacturing industry underneath the surface. They mainly make weapons, but we can get other things from them, like fishing rods in this case."

"I see, but how do we send them the message?"

"That's the problem. Ryouta's the fastest runner, unless you're faster. I heard you're a faster swimmer than him. That's ridiculous."

Ryouta looked over before stating, "I refuse to go to guild. You haven't even sent a message to disarm the traps."

I heard him say disarm the traps and wondered if we could disarm the password-door-mallet-thing. Riku answered Ryouta with, "True that. Alright then. I doubt any of us can make fishing poles out of dirt, but we can make spears."

"We're going to hunt using spears?"

"Actually, Mariko might be able to make fishing poles. Let's not bet on it though." We were still inching on slowly, wary of any traps that might ambush the group before we made it to the river.

* * *

Otonashi was sprinting over with a video camera that he borrowed from a club. He knew that he wouldn't have to return it because NPC's didn't really care, but he told himself that he would anyways. He knew that the SSS was moving slowly in case of traps, but he already went down this path before, so he knew it was safe. He kept up his fast pace just in case though. He wasn't using overdrive, so Otonashi started to become a little tired, so he looked down as he ran. Not before long, he ran into somebody. Otonashi was surprised to see an NPC uniform as he looked up thinking that an NPC would have no reason to go this far from campus. When he saw the face, Otonashi knew why though. "Sakune, perfect. Do you mind if I set this video camera up in your tent?"

"No. Just don't move anything, Prez. Why though? Did you hear that some girls were gonna go bathe in the river?" He winked as he delivered the last statement, but kept on walking.

"You really are a pervert."

"Naa, it's just how I greet people." As started to sprint towards the stream again, Wakahiko trudged the road back to campus.

* * *

"Kouhei! This is tiring. I'm one of the two leaders, so I'm important, and I need to conserve strength! You should carry me, Kouhei! It's such a long walk for me, but you're in shape and you need to become more athletic for swimming, so you should carry me Kouhei!"

"Last time you said I should become more athletic to protect you, right? You're just using me to your advantage, aren't you? Hell with it, I'm not even surprised. I'm sorry, Ayaka. I don't particularly want to carry you right now."

"Riku! This is tiring. I'm one of the two leaders, so I'm important, and I need to conserve strength! You should carry me, Riku! It's such a long walk for me, but you're in shape and yo-"

Riku already realized that she was going to repeat her speech to Kouhei, so he just stopped her there. He picked her up princess style. He then proceeded to drop her. "Oh, I'm sorry Ayaka, apparently I wasn't ready."

"Riku! That hurt! I might get injured, and then we might be ambushed by Angel! I won't be able to help everyone!"

"Why would anyone, especially Angel be here?"

Before Ayaka could respond to Riku's question, Nanami pointed towards the distance and simply stated, "There." Everyone looked where she was pointing, and we saw a figure walking. He was walking up the path that we were walking down, so we assumed he was coming from the stream. He looked unscathed, but was wearing a NPC uniform, so I figured out that there weren't any traps down the path. The group would have walked past him, but suddenly, Daiki stopped and turned to him. "What are you doing?"

"Excuse me? I'm walking back to campus."

"Where are you coming from?"

"The stream that's next to our school."

"Why were you there?"

"I decided to visit; there's no harm done, right?"

Jordan talked for the first time the whole walk by asking, "Are you human?"

"Of course I'm human! Everyone here's human, right?"

Seemingly ignoring the NPC, Jordan turned to us and said, "He's probably an NPC. A human would realize that the people here are strange. He is the student council secretary, but that doesn't mean anything."

"Excuse me, what's an NPC? Why does that describe me while human doesn't?" Everyone was still looking at Jordan, so he was completely ignored, but I doubt he was unheard. Riku and Ryouta simply nodded at Jordan to show agreement. Nanami just said, "Yeah," while Ayaka jumped up in down in agreement while praising Jordan's ability of deduction. I noticed that Daiki didn't even respond. I quickly started deducting possibilities. _This guy's walking back from the stream with no good reason besides visiting. I see no reason why a NPC would go down there, but it's not anything superbly unordinary either, so it may be possible. _I looked back at the stranger as everyone else kept walking. _His hair's brown and is tied up in a ponytail, which isn't anything too strange either. He was wearing one black, leather glove, but it's still nothing weird. Student council vice president. The only thing amiss is that he's coming from the stream, which is a strange place, but there's no reason he can't come. I guess he's a NPC, but something doesn't seem right._

* * *

Author's note

Thank you to 0time and JaxDaxPeaceMaker for the ideas of Wakahiko and Jordan respectively.

And sorry for that mysterious reviewer, but that person was a bit extreme for me :P

3 chapters done, somewhere around 17000 words, and I'm finally gonna start making something happen next chapter. Introductions suck. I'm pretty much good with character ideas, but feel free to send more if you'd like.

School, projects, my life, or lack thereof, so I can't promise any dates for next chapter. I'm starting to write other things too, but nothing big yet.

Thanks for reading, and on to next time.


	4. Fishing and a Proposal

I don't own Angel Beats or any related parties in anyway.

Forgive me for any grammar or spelling mistakes, it's hard to catch them all.

Side note: I will be using the Japanese tradition of using first or last names to resemble closeness, but I won't be adding honorifics mainly because I'm not 100% sure how they all work. The only Japanese I've been exposed to is anime, forgive me.

* * *

Fishing and a Proposal

Otonashi finished fiddling with the camera. It was positioned where no one would notice it, but it could see everything. He looked into the horizon and noticed that the company was coming up, so Otonashi realized that he had to get away without getting noticed. Despite that, he also noticed that they weren't carrying anything. "They forgot fishing poles. Wow." Otonashi walked over to a bridge that was next to the stream. Swinging under it, he landed next to a large tent positioned beside the stream. After fiddling around with the opening, Otonashi carried out two fishing poles. He noticed that there was a pole that was set up already. After scattering the two poles, he checked the line to see a decent sized salmon on it. Otonashi put it in the tent and re-cast the line. He started to climb back up, but a hand grabbed him. Before dropping down, Otonashi took out a gun and pointed it at the person holding him.

"Daiki doesn't hate you, and I trust his judgment. I see no reason to harm you; in fact, I'm helping you. Everyone's already here. You can hide in the tent; I'll make sure no one goes near." Otonashi turned his head to see a very familiar face.

"Hatsune!?"

"Umm. No, I'm sorry," the girl looked away from Otonashi as she started to breathe a little heavier. "I'm Mochizuki Mariko, member of the SSS."

"Are you alright? You don't seem well; fever maybe? Should I bring you to the infirmary?"

"Ahh! No! I'm just shy." She looked down with extremely red cheeks. Otonashi noticed that this girl only resembled his little sister. She was taller, had thinner lips, longer and lighter hair, and a slightly thinner nose. Since she was here, she must have also been a high school student. "They're here, you should hide."

"Sure, but how much did you see?"

"Since you got here."

* * *

"We all made it safe and sound! We should celebrate!"

"Ayaka, we're doing an operation."

"Riku! You didn't have to remind me!" The whole crew reached the stream, so everyone but Ryouta and I fell down to rest their legs. "Ahh! Even after death, it's still so tiring to walk so far!"

"Yeah, but Ayaka, how many detours did we go on because of you?"

"Don't blame me, Kouhei! I would have gone straight if you carried me. Riku, you're at fault too!"

"It's completely your fault. Where's this Mariko person anyways?"

No one answered, but Daiki looked around before stating, "Mariko is shy. There is a high probability she is hiding from you." I started to walk around looking for a good fishing place. _I really don't know too much about fishing, do I? I hope someone here knows how to fish well. _I reached a bridge and was going to lay down on it to soak a little sun before seeing a girl nimbly swing up from under the bridge. I rolled away and pulled out my sword. "Who are you?"

"Umm…I'm Mariko, Mochizuki Mariko. C-could you put that away please?"

I put my blade back while looking at the girl. _So this is Mariko. She resembles Otonashi a little bit._ "Ahh, sorry about that. I was just surprised," I put my hand out to offer a handshake, "I'm Inagaki Kouhei; just call me Kouhei. I'm a new member. The others told me a little bit about you already." I gave a friendly smile knowing that she was a shy girl. She took my hand while averting her eyes from mine. "Mariko, come on, everyone else is over there."

"There are some fishing poles over there if we need some."

I looked over to where she was pointing to see two poles on the ground. I grabbed them and we walked back to the group. When we got there, Daiki was telling people what to do for the operation. I realized that we were pretty much going fishing, so I saw no reason for such orders, but Daiki was the leader so I said nothing. Much to my surprise, Mariko spoke up. "Daiki, we're fishing. There's no need for such useless orders. Also, we only have two fishing poles. No one here can make fishing poles, I'm assuming, so we should at least make some spears." I looked over at her in a new light. _She's supposed to be shy, yet she's willing to speak up like that to Daiki. Interesting_.

"I guess you're right, Mariko. We have two poles, so who should get them?"

Riku responded by saying, "I know how to fish pretty well, so I'll take one pole. I also imagine that Ayaka will want one, since she's quite scared of getting in the water and swimming."

I pondered Riku's statement for a second before thinking out-loud, "Ayaka can't swim? Is that why she wanted Ryouta and me to come?" I was just met by an extremely flustered Ayaka being teased by Ryouta. "Anyways, let's start!" I shouted.

Everybody proceeded to where Daiki suggested, and everyone excluding Ayaka and Riku made spears to fish with. We waded several yards into the water, and started to spear at the fish. I looked around me to check out the surroundings. Despite the sun being high in the sky, the rushing water managed to create a cool air around us. There weren't many trees in the area, but as I looked farther away, I saw a green forest rolling up a mountain. Inspecting the water, I noticed that it was a very light color, just a shade darker than the sky, and the white water splashing up only helped to lighten the water. More offshore into the water was a sudden lack of white water and a darker shade of blue. I looked down to see that the water was a little past my knee, and when I stuck a spear into the ground, about a yard protruded from the water. I grabbed a spear and threw it in an arc to the darker water. No one else noticed, but it made a clean splash and completely disappeared underneath. _The water's clearly deeper over there. It appears to be a sudden fall too, because the current slope that the bottom is descending at wouldn't create such a large gap. Maybe that's where the operation's name came from. Someone who couldn't swim took one step too much and fell into the water, "eaten" by the monstrous drop in the stream. Of course we can't die here, so I wonder what would have happened._ I looked over at everyone else. Ayaka and Riku caught about six fish together, Nanami caught two, Ryouta caught one, but he was swimming more than fishing. I looked beside me to see Daiki struggling with catching anything. "Daiki, why don't you take off your eye-patch? It would increase your coordination immensely."

"What would I gain?"

_Oh, here goes another round of questioning._ "You would become more coordinated, catching more fish."

"How would I become more coordinated?"

"Umm…you would have two pictures of the scene in front of you, and your linear perspective would allow you to pinpoint a point in space."

"Therefore, my coordination comes from seeing two pictures of the same thing?"

"To be very basic, I guess you're right."

"Is that desirable though?"

"What? Of course better coordination is desirable."

"Are you so sure?"

_Looking from the eyes of a normal person, I'd be sure, but Daiki's practically a philosopher. What's so philosophical about this though? What has he asked me so far? What would I gain? How would I become more coordinated? Therefore, my coordination comes from seeing two pictures of the same thing? Is that desirable though? That's it! What's being desired though? The ability to see two pictures of the same thing. Looking at the coordination, it's practically necessary, but what about in life, saying he's a philosopher. What would happen if I saw two different sides of the same argument? Does Daiki believe that seeing both sides would cause indecisiveness? I wonder._ "I am sure that seeing two pictures of the same thing is desirable when talking about coordination."

"Now you have added extra information, saying it is desirable only for coordination. Does that mean it is undesirable when talking of other topics?"

"I believe it is still desirable. My best deduction is that you believe seeing both sides will cause indecisiveness in a battle."

"You are correct. I do believe that."

"I'm going to ask some questions now, Daiki."

"Continue then, Kouhei."

"Will seeing both sides really create indecisiveness?"

"I would imagine so."

"Are wars bad things?"

"I would consider them bad, but I don't understand the direct link between the two subjects at hand."

"How are wars usually ended?"

"They are generally ended through treaties."

"What do treaties do?"

Daiki paused for a moment before answering the question. "Treaties create a compromise that both sides usually agree to."

"Emphasis on 'that both sides usually agree to'. That means the person or people who created this treaty had to make something agreeable to both sides."

"That is correct."

"And in order to do that, then we must know what the other wants, in turn, looking at the war from the opponent's side."

"I suppose you're correct. Then seeing two pictures is desirable for coordination and making treaties."

"That's a narrow way of looking at it. We could keep on going with other topics."

"Could you keep on going if we were talking about the topic of war?"

"Of course I could! Let's look at the Prussian-Austrian empire."

"What about it?"

Before answering, I randomly thought about the situation. _Daiki isn't leading this conversation. I'm not exactly leading it either, but either way, that's strange. Daiki keeps coming off as the main leader figure, because Ayaka doesn't really seem to be the leader figure. Is Daiki only pretending to take the part? If so, why?_ "The Austrians lived by the quote, "Let others make war; you, fortunate Austria, marry." This pretty much means, while everyone else is making war, we will make very decisive, political marriages to keep peace."

"And how does that help your argument of two pictures?"

"A political marriage would not work unless we looked at what both sides wanted. Austria wanted peace, and whoever's country was being married wanted an alliance with Austria."

"As simple as the concept may seem, I understand your argument. I don't know if it's applicable in all cases though. I no longer wish to speak of this topic."

_Have I struck a chord in Daiki? Ahh, whatever. I wonder how Mariko's doing._ I looked back at Mariko to see something that completely blew me away. She was walking towards shore carrying a spear and a bucket that was filled with at least thirty fish. "Mariko! How did you possibly catch that many fish?!"

"Hmm! Ahh, Kouhei! Err, it's nothing too much. I guess, I just-umm- had some luck today. Yeah, lucky haul! Maybe a little bit of n-natural t-talent. I have a bit of skill in a lot of things! I used a few concepts from everywhere. I guess I'm just a-well-jack of all trades!"

I was about to believe her when I saw Daiki let out a snicker from the corner of my eye. He proceeded to whisper to me, "Yeah, Mariko could be described as a jack of all trades. A super talented, super coordinated, super human, jack of all trades. She can pick up anything that requires use of arms, hands, and coordination in minutes."

"Is she really that amazing?"

"She became a professional markswoman in two weeks."

"That's crazy." I looked back at Mariko who was sitting at the shore. She let out a sigh and lay down. I noticed that her jean shorts were soaked from the water, but only the bottom of her black t-shirt was damp. She looked back to where Daiki and I were standing. Mariko waved and smiled at Daiki, but immediately blushed and looked away when she saw me. _She has some relationship with Daiki. She's supposed to be shy, yet she interacts with Daiki like good friends. Daiki also talks like a normal teenager when the topic is Mariko. He's usually talking like a philosopher, but I could only see a teenager talking about his past when Daiki talked about Mariko. Maybe I'll ask about that later._

"Yo, Kouhei! You wanna try swimming deeper?!"

My train of thought being broken, I looked over at the source of the voice to see Ryouta treading and waving at me. "Do you know how deep it is over there?"

"No idea, but I can touch the bottom here. It only seems to get deeper from here though!"

"How can you tell?"

"Just a random guess!"

_Feels like something Ayaka would say. _Before I could swim over, Nanami, who was standing closer, started to walk over to Ryouta. She was about an inch taller than Ryouta, so Nanami was standing fine where he was. "Let's see how far we can stand," she declared.

She took one step forward, and her shoulders were in the water. She took another step; her neck was in the water. Nanami took one more step and screamed. She tried to stay afloat and in place, but the current was pulling her under and away. Ryouta reacted pretty quickly. He dove over to where she appeared to be. After a second, he came up shouting, "A little help?!" I threw off my polo shirt to reduce drag, and I sprinted over to him. I knew it would take me about ten seconds to get to where they were, so I decided to use the time to figure out the situation. _Obviously Nanami's drowning, so I guess she's not a strong swimmer. Ryouta's arms seem to be tied down, so I'm assuming that he's holding onto Nanami. He's treading to stay up, but he can't hold his place, so he's floating away from me, but the current is also helping me speed up. The fact that Ryouta managed to grab Nanami so quickly meant that she probably wasn't flailing around, so she's calm right now which is a good sign. The swimming power of Ryouta and me should be enough to get all three of us to shore. _By then, I had reached Ryouta and grabbed onto Nanami. We first brought Nanami up to breathe, but Ryouta and I suddenly froze. Ryouta looked over at me with eyes that obviously showed fear, and I returned the same eyes towards him. I didn't know if Nanami would notice, since she wasn't a very water oriented person, but Ryouta and I felt a very strange and very strong current coming beneath us. In a second, we were thrown into the air.

* * *

Otonashi was crouching in Wakahiko's tent, but he saw Kouhei, Nanami, and Ryouta fly into the air. "What the hell? No one can possibly jump that high without overdrive! The only time anyone else has thrown us that high was when we found the monster fish, but that was Tachibana in overdrive doing the throwing." As if he was being answered, Otonashi saw a huge fish come up after the trio. "Dammit, it's definitely smaller, but apparently it can jump out of the water by itself." Otonashi jumped from the tent, but realized that he couldn't do anything in the situation without showing himself. "If only my relationship with the SSS was like Tachibana's."

* * *

Daiki realized something was amiss when Ryouta and Kouhei stopped swimming, so he ran over to the land in order to prepare for anything. Not knowing anything, he grabbed his shotgun and pointed it near the three, just in case.

* * *

Ryouta, Nanami, and I were thrown into the air by some huge force in the water. Nanami spun around first, and her gasp alerted Ryouta and I to look behind us too. We landed in the water, but a huge splash next to us immediately submerged the three of us. I didn't get a great look of what we were up against, but it looked like some huge fish. _There's no way a fish can be that big though. This should be a realistic world. Then again, we have this Angel Player. _I resurfaced, and Ryouta was up within a second. I was worried that Nanami drowned, but her flailing arms revealed her location. Ryouta and I swam over to her, but we were thrown into the air again by the fish. This time, the three of us turned around simultaneously. I took the initiative and threw Nanami backwards towards the land, and it seemed as though Ryouta caught on because he gave a tiny push too. I thought that Ryouta and I could possibly swim to shore when we landed, but it turned out he had other things planned. I felt a huge blow to my side, and I looked over to see that Ryouta kicked me away. The fish and Ryouta were falling down, and they were aligned perfectly so that Ryouta couldn't possibly escape being eaten. _He'll just revive. Right? Oh god, this'll be gruesome._ Before I heard the smack from the water, I heard a gunshot from the land. Ryouta's body spurted blood, but he flew away from the designated course. He landed somewhat near me, so I grabbed his body, which was dead by then, and dragged it onto the land. I thought that the fish wouldn't possibly jump towards the land, so I assumed we were safe. I decided to see who shot the gun and saw Daiki with a smoking shotgun in his hands. Another thing I noticed was that his eye-patch was pulled up. He didn't have heterochromia, and the fact that he took the patch off meant that his eye wasn't blind either. _So he really wears it in order to be less decisive; that's symbolic at the least._

"Ryouta's dead?" Nanami was looking over at me. I had Ryouta's dead body on my back, so I didn't answer. I just nodded at her. Nanami kept on staring blankly while saying, "He saved me."

"Yeah, he did. How are you going to repay him?"

"I don't know."

_A huge fish. I'm not sure what it was trying to do, but as stereotypical as it may seem, it was probably trying to eat us. It must have been as big as a whale, but it was able to jump that high out of the water. I don't think physics should have let such a bulky thing swim fast enough to jump out of the water. My best guess is that it's some monster that can defy the laws of physics. Monster; monster in the stream; operation monster stream; makes sense. It can defy the laws of physics, or maybe the laws aren't the same here. This is the afterlife; gravity, inertia, resistance, and whatever feels the same. Maybe there's something off though. Something divine?_ After thinking of the word divine, I looked over at Nanami again. I remembered my small talks about everyone; I started to remember bits and pieces of information. _Divinity means God. This group of people gathered together because they hate God, right? Nanami blamed God. On the other hand, didn't Ayaka blame herself?_ _And what about everyone else?_ I looked around at everybody, and it was only then I realized how little I knew about everyone here.

Daiki broke my train of thoughts by announcing, "It appears as though there was really a monster in the stream, and thus we get the name Operation Monster Stream. Would it not be beneficial to be more cautious of the other operations from the first SSS?"

Riku, who was calming Ayaka, looked up and asked, "That's probably true, but do remember that the description of this operation was just like a normal fishing trip. Why didn't it say anything of an actual monster?"

I decided to barge in and state, "They didn't necessarily know of the monster either. All the operations seemed to have normal descriptions and ridiculous names. There's the possibility that this one just coincidentally described the stream itself."

Everyone was quiet for a little bit, but Ayaka finally pierced the silence. "All is over! We should just go back to school!"

Nanami, who resumed her bored countenance, responded with, "No detours this time?" A few people chuckled, and we started to walk back to school. A few minutes down the road, and I started to think about the crazy story. I ended by thinking, "_And in the end, Ayaka, Riku, Daiki, Ryouta, Nanami and I walked back in a good mood._" It was only then I realized that Mariko wasn't present. _She's not here? She easily could have snuck away, but why and where? She's a member of the SSS, so where could she go? Then again, where did she come from? She swung up from under the bridge. Why was she under the bridge?_ I decided to shout out, "Hey guys, I'm going to turn around and go back to the stream, I want to check something out. I'll come back later!" I started to jog back before anyone could respond, and no one tried to stop me either.

* * *

"Mochizuki, right?"

"Umm-yeah. That's correct. Otonashi?"

"Yep. I'm sorry about the situation, but thanks for the help."

"No, it's nothing."

"Everyone left?"

"I believe so."

I was eavesdropping from above the bridge, but I decided that I could trust Mariko and Otonashi. I let my presence be known by exclaiming, "Everyone but Kouhei!" and jumping down next to them. I looked at the scene. "Mariko, are you friend's with Otonashi?"

"No, we met just before you arrived for the operation."

"I see. And it appears that you are on good terms with him."

"Yeah, I guess so. Do you need something?"

"Answers."

Mariko didn't respond to that, but she didn't seem startled either. I knew that she was a very physically adept person, but I had no idea how intelligent she was. I decided to take my bet on outsmarting her to get what I wanted.

"Mariko, how long have you been here?"

"I don't know how time works here and in the normal world."

_Good way to avoid the question, but why would she want to avoid it in the first place? Did she even mean to avoid it, or was it a coincidence?_

I continued by asking Otonashi a question, "Do you know if it's possible for two people in life to meet again here?"

He pondered the question for a second before answering, "I don't recall it ever happening before, but I see no reason why it can't happen either."

"Coming off of that, Mariko, did you know Daiki in your past life?"

There was no answer, but rather an intrigued look in Mariko's eye. She slowly started to smile a bit more before shaking her head. Instead of responding with a yes or no, which is what I expected, she said, "Daiki has been a friend of mine. I still think of him as a friend, but it's hard to imagine he's the same person. He's just so different than before."

_Different from before. So different that he appears to be an unrecognizable person to a friend. Right now he's a philosophical, well thought-out, leader. What's the opposite? An uneducated, un-thought-out, follower. That sounds like someone who couldn't make choices; an indecisive person. Daiki was so adamant that indecisiveness was a bad thing. Is it because of his life experiences? Was he an indecisive person? And if he hates it so much, does it have to do with his regret? Maybe, but I've made a lot of assumptions, it's nothing good to base an opinion off of._

I left my mindset to see Otonashi looking at me with curious eyes. "Kouhei, could I speak to you in the student council office soon?"

"Sure, why not?"

* * *

Otonashi and I were sitting in the office. I was surprised to see the person we met on the road there. "Hey Otonashi, that's the vice president, right?"

"Nope, he's the secretary."

I was surprised. I had a decent memory, but thinking about it, I remembered that Jordan didn't say vice president; he did say secretary. "If he's the secretary, then I'm assuming there are also other positions, vice-president and treasurer. Am I right?"

"No treasurer, but there is a vice-president."

The guy from the road picked his head up from his book and asked, "Hey prez, who's this?"

"Inagaki Kouhei. That's all you need to know now. Kouhei, this is Wakahiko Sakune."

"Sup Inagaki. I don't know what you have to do with prez, but do you want to check out the girl's locker room afterwards? I've seen you in the pool before, so just say you accidentally went to the wrong locker. You might be able to check out some chicks." After winking, Wakahiko was shot by Otonashi.

"Dammit Sakune," muttered Otonashi. He put his gun down and sighed.

I stared at the two of them in disbelief. "Otonashi, NPC's don't revive! Isn't it a bit strange if your secretary just disappears?!"

"Who said he was a NPC? He's a human. This isn't what I brought you here for though. I have a proposal to make. I think you've realized a few things. The group of people you hang out with is the head of the SSS. I'm not too sure why you were immediately put into the head, but you were. The SSS is a force fighting against me, but you have probably realized that a lot of them actually have nothing against me. I'm not sure if you realized this though; the SSS is much, much larger. There are other factions; you guys are just the head of the system. Virtually the rest of the SSS hates me."

"Alright, that's understandable, but what's your proposal?"

"I want you to join the student council. You're not going to be a formal member, because you'll probably get kicked out if you do, but more of a helper."

"So you want me to be like a double agent?"

"In the end, I am trying to help everyone, but you could say that. I understand that this actually is a pretty big step, so feel free to take some time before answering."

"I'll obviously be working under you; therefore, I want to ask you one question. You're human; I think it's safe to assume that. So what's your regret?"

"My regret? I think in the end, I just wanted to be genuinely thanked."

"You've been freeing people from this place for a while. Have you never been thanked before?"

"There was one girl who genuinely thanked me. I like to believe that her thank was enough to let me move on, but if I moved on, I would have had another regret."

"That girl was the former Angel, wasn't it?"

His voice became more and more melancholic, but Otonashi continued to explain. "Yes, she was." Otonashi looked over at the wall. There was a picture hung up on it. It was a picture of several students who I assumed were Otonashi's friends. Otonashi himself was sharing the middle with a shorter white haired girl. "Kouhei, the girl in the middle was the last Angel. I love her. Her regret was never meeting her heart donor, me. She came to this world and tried to help everybody move on."

"I'm guessing she wanted to thank you. Do you ever wonder that she may be sad that her heart donor was the only one who didn't move on?"

At that, Otonashi actually laughed. "I never thought about that. Maybe you're right, but I have to stay here to keep some semblance of order."

"Is there anyone else in that picture that I should know of?"

"See the girl with purplish hair? That's the last leader of the SSS. The laptop in the SSS room is hers. She co-founded the SSS with the blue haired kid right there. I mentioned his name, Hinata."

_The founders of the old SSS are both there._ _Does that mean that this picture is…_ "Otonashi, this is the last SSS, isn't it?"

"The head of the SSS, at least."

"So the last Angel was part of the SSS."

"See the kid with the black hat, he acted as student council president, was the vice-president, and God."

"That kid was God?!"

"He had a God-complex. His philosophy was interesting though. He said that the fact that we suffered in our lives gave us the opportunity to be God."

"Then God would just be a title. That's an interesting way to think about it. One last thing; if you were in this picture, you were part of the last SSS."

"Yes."

"History tends to repeat itself, doesn't it? I accept your proposal. I'm not too sure what I'll have to do, but we'll see how fate turns this time."

Otonashi seemed surprised at my decision. "I'm surprised you accepted so quickly. Welcome, Inagaki Kouhei."

* * *

And that ends chapter 4. Kouhei unofficially joins the student council. I still have virtually no idea what's going to happen, but instead of making this a protagonist vs antagonist story, I'm thinking about making this a story with an overlying theme, but antagonists come and go in arcs. Could I get some feedback on that? Or on anything? I want to feel like someone is actually reading this.

I'm endlessly accepting ideas for characters, plot ideas, or anything. PM or review.

On another note. Oh my God, huge writer's block. I had to stop this for a good four weeks. I've finished my major writing assignments, so I might be able to quicken the pace a little bit. Who knows though? Until next time.


	5. Another Proposal:Message:Operation

I don't own Angel Beats or any related parties in anyway.

Forgive me for any grammar or spelling mistakes, it's hard to catch them all.

I think you know the side note by now. Also, I'm switching to completely third person. Using first person for only Kouhei just felt slightly strange. Of course I'll be using first person for any type of dialogue or thought.

If you're wondering why this chapter took so long, this is why: first off, it's the longest chapter yet, and second is that my file deleted itself halfway through writing it. I cried. Not really though. I gave a message as a chapter, but I deleted that chapter. Enjoy

* * *

Another Proposal, Another Message, Another Operation

With the proposal done with, Otonashi was alone in the room with a dead Sakune after the proposal. "Ahh, I might as well enjoy a cup of tea." He poured himself a cup and sat opposite of Sakune. While sipping his tea, Otonashi inspected Sakune curiously. Since there really wasn't anything to see, Otonashi got up and walked to the window.

"Hey Prez, why did you have to shoot me?"

Realizing that Sakune revived, Otonashi explained, "I always kill you after you say something perverted like asking Kouhei to go to the girl's locker room."

Sakune sarcastically retorted, "But you usually stab me!"

"You were out of reach. And do you enjoy being stabbed more than being shot?"

"It doesn't really make much of a difference. It's not particularly fun being killed, you know? I personally enjoy my living relationship with people."

"Which consists of you asking guys to be perverted or making perverted acts on girls," added Otonashi.

"Living the good life," joked Sakune, "just a question, why'd you bring the Kouhei kid in here anyways? You don't usually bring anybody outside of the student council or problem students. I mean, everyone in the SSS is a problem student in his or her own way, but you know what I mean."

"Kouhei? Oh, I made him a proposal."

Sakune slightly smirked and cocked his eyebrow because he knew that Otonashi's relationship with SSS members wasn't amazing. "So Prez, what was this proposal about?"

"He agreed to join the student council as a double agent type of person."

Suddenly, Sakune stopped smiling. In a more serious tone than Otonashi had ever heard him speak, Sakune asked, "Why did you do that?"

Otonashi simply smiled, stating, "I'm trying to help us all. Don't worry about it."

"Are you trying to recreate the past?"

"History does tend to repeat itself, Sakune."

"That may be true, but that doesn't mean we should try to mimic history."

"I think we'll all be happy in the end. Don't worry, Sakune! Return to your usual, childish self!"

"Does the end justify the means?"

"All's well that ends well."

"Screw it! I'm going out for a bit!"

Sakune stormed out of the student council room. Otonashi was still smiling, believing that Sakune was playing a harder joke than usual. After Sakune didn't come back for a few minutes, Otonashi realized that Sakune was serious. "Ahh, if only Sakune would trust me more."

* * *

"Hey Nanami! Have you seen Kouhei anywhere?! Swim practice is about to start!" Ryouta walked over to where Nanami was sitting. She was blankly staring outside; the window was starting to frost over.

"Ryouta. Winter is coming."

"Yup! This must be an early frost! It's like an omen. It's telling me, 'Ryouta, swim season is coming. Be prepared!' Anyways, have you seen Kouhei?"

"He was heading somewhere with Angel."

"Angel?! Shoot. That's not good. What weapons do I have on me?" He started pressing around his body to salvage up a few weapons.

"Kouhei appeared to be going on his own will. There was no apparent struggling."

Ryouta was holding two throwing knives, a flash grenade, and a high powered, but empty, watergun. "Man, Nanami, being a diversion unit isn't fun. Weapons are a pain, so I'm useless in a 1v1 fight. I might be able to stun Angel and retrieve Kouhei though."

Nanami paused for a second, "It's a possibility."

Ryouta's head cocked. He was becoming slightly wary that something was off. "You know what? I think Angel can hypnotize people. That's why Kouhei wasn't struggling. He was hypnotized. I'm gonna go give Angel a good smack!"

Nanami looked at Ryouta for the first time during the conversation. "Maybe. Good luck."

By then, Ryouta realized something was completely off. "Nanami, what's wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone in the SSS knows that you hate Angel the most. I'd normally imagine you cheering me on to kill Angel, but you're barely showing any enthusiasm! Or helpful words, since you don't usually show enthusiasm at all." Looking at Nanami, Ryouta tilted his head to his side to emphasize his point, but he saw something very off. A tear rolled down Nanami's cheek. "Hey, Nanami. You're crying. That's completely out of character. Are you sure you're ok?"

"Of course I'm fine."

"No you're not."

Nanami paused a moment at Ryouta's assertive answer. "You really know me well, don't you, Ryouta?"

"Who knows? Maybe I'm assuming that you don't show emotions at all. I feel like you need someone to talk to right now though; what's wrong?"

Nanami started to break down, "Ryouta, what if I was wrong? What if it isn't all God's fault? What if it really was me?!" she was uncharacteristically screaming, but Ryouta didn't look surprised, "What if I made my own mistakes?! What if-"

"It doesn't matter," Ryouta interrupted, "if we find God, we'll give him a good beating; if not, we'll help each other. This battlefront isn't only a battlefront; we're friends."

Nanami tearfully whispered, "What happens when we move on anyways? Is it some big event that everyone knows or do we quietly disappear from this world? Isn't that a sad idea? I don't want to die alone. How do we get over our regret anyways?"

"I don't know what happens after we move on nor even how we move on. I can promise that you won't die alone though. I don't think anyone in the SSS will, but I'll put it onto myself that at least I'm there when you move on," Ryouta hypothesized. "As for your last question, I believe that we have to recreate the situation and complete it successfully or correctly."

Ryouta had already sat down next to Nanami. There were still tears rolling down her cheeks, but she was making a genuine smile. Ryouta dabbed off her tears with his sleeve and then put his arm around her. Nanami leaned against Ryouta, and the two stayed like that for a minute. They looked outside. The window had more frost and was hard to see out of. Nanami asked, "Ryouta, I have a question, but it's slightly personal. Do you mind?"

"That's not like you; you usually don't care much for sentimentalities. As I said before, we're friends. Ask away."

"Does your regret have to do with swimming?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Ever since you got here, you've been completely obsessed with swimming. You're doing anything and everything to get better. I heard that when Kouhei came, he was just as good as you, but now you can beat him consistently."

Ryouta looked up at the ceiling, then back to the window. The frost was getting stronger, but he ignored it and said, "You're right about Kouhei, but swimming wasn't exactly my regret. It was more of a determining factor," closing his eyes, Ryouta continued:

**My death and regret weren't directly related; it was more of a cause and effect. I was being bullied by some kids, but being a high-level swimmer, I was strong. They didn't manage to kill me or anything, but by the time they ran away, I was completely winded. I just fell down and fell asleep. I felt something cold touch my cheek, and since it was winter, my guess is that it started to snow. It probably snowed over me and I died after I fell asleep. That doesn't really have much to do with my regret though.**

**To fully explain, I should start with my roots. My parents knew how to raise a child well. They didn't particularly know how to raise me though; I was a strange kid. My father was a lawyer and my mother was a doctor, so there were pretty high bars set for me. As you could guess, I was a really good swimmer. If I really wanted too, I could have gone pro. My parents decided to follow that philosophy of "if your child is good at something, let them go down that path." I lived a relatively normal life, but most of my free time was taken up with swimming or conditioning. I didn't mind that though. I really did love to swim.**

**I was a strong guy, but when everyone pushes you somewhere, you have to go there, right? My parents didn't say much, but my classmates, teammates, coaches, teachers, and virtually everyone I knew urged me to go for professional swimming. I didn't know about it; it's hard to make a living out of sports. It went on for a long time with me humbly stating that I wasn't able. After a while though, my parents let through. They knew that I loved to swim, so they decided to ask me about going professional. "Ryouta, you're a very good swimmer. I believe that professional swimming may be an option for you! Why don't you think about it?"**

**"Dad, it's good and all, but do you really think I should? Do you think it's worth the effort?"**

**"I think you should! I already talked to Mom, and she agreed!"**

**I decided that since I loved the people I was with, I should probably work with them. I decided to become a professional swimmer. I never did talk about what I really wanted to do though. You know, I just wanted to become a teacher. I would go to a small school for my job and get close to my students. I'd teach chemistry and physics. After school, I would coach swimming, of course. I wanted everyone to be happy though, so I never talked about that dream of mine; I just swam.**

**My parents moved me to some sports school. I would swim every day, but there were afterschool classes. It was backwards from the average school. The people I met there were cool. Most were kind and happy, but they were all motivated and extremely good athletes. Despite having so many amazing athletes, I never found anyone who was a better swimmer than me. It didn't take long for my swimming coach to realize my talent. He trained me hard, but I swam every lap as best as I could. About two years after I entered the school, my father and I had one of the most important, but very simple, conversations of my life.**

**"Ryouta, how was school today?"**

**"It was the same as always. The intensity is going down because I'm tapering."**

**"I shouldn't have to tell you why you're tapering though."**

**"Nope; the race that tells whether or not I become a professional is in two days."**

**"Yep. It'll be hard to win, but the first three people go on. Good luck."**

******I think that was the last, normal conversation I had while living.**

**The meet came, and I was ready. The conditions were quite favorable for me. We were swimming at a fifty meter, outdoor pool. It was my favorite event, the one hundred meter freestyle. It was late spring, so there was a warm breeze that ran over my skin. I was full of energy from my taper, so I wanted to jump around, but I had to save one hundred percent of my energy for the race. I walked up to the block to start my normal swimming ritual. I looked upwards towards the sky. Up in the beautiful heavens, there were white clouds and birds freely flying forward, and I knew I would soon follow them. The crowd was loud, but when the announcer started talking, everything fell silent.**

**"Swimmers, step up."**

**I stepped up onto my block.**

**"Take your marks."**

**I bent down and grabbed the block. I was completely ready to explode off the block and win.**

**"Go."**

**I was off the block in a moment.**

**It was a normal sprint: two laps of my fastest swimming and a flip turn. I surfaced and stroked as fast as I could. It was fuzzy, but I remembered how I finished. My father was correct; I didn't win. I got second place by about a third of a second. I didn't mind though; my only goal was to place in the top three. I did my normal routine of flicking my hair and letting my goggles sink into the water. I looked into the crowd to find my parents, but I realized something was very off. No one was cheering. Normally, the crowd would erupt when the race ended, especially one as close at this, but I thought I could hear every droplet fall into the water. Each breath that came out of my mouth was distinct and crisp. Something was wrong. As always, everyone got out of the water. The official walked up to me, so I realized that the reason everyone was quiet had something to do with me.**

**"Mr. Yamamoto Ryouta?"**

**"Yes, sir."**

**"First off, congratulations on such a good race."**

**"Thank you, sir. I'm assuming something bad happened to me."**

**"Yes. You placed second, but you were disqualified."**

**"Disqualified? I see. May I ask what I did?"**

**"Of course, Mr. Yamamoto. Off the start, you broke the water at approximately twenty meters. The rules say that the head must be out of the water by meter number fifteen."**

**"I understand, sir. Thank you."**

**The official left, and I stood there for a few seconds. I was thinking about what most people would do in this situation. I thought that most people would cry or something dramatic, but I felt strangely calm. I couldn't become a professional swimmer, at least not this year. Maybe I could become that science teacher, or I could try again in two years. Of course I would be dead then, but I didn't know that at the time. I turned around and shook hands with every swimmer and official. I dried off and headed home.**

**When I got home, I immediately flopped onto the couch. I just felt like being lazy for an hour or so. I decided that I would pursue that job as a teacher. I got up and found my dad. I raised my hand to get his attention, but when I opened my mouth, my father turned around as if to avoid me. I thought to myself, ****_"I guess you shouldn't try to talk to a guy who just lost a professional race via disqualification."_**** I told myself that I would talk to my parents in a week or two. In the meantime, my next step was returning to a normal school. My parents did it by themselves, and I got myself ready for the first day back. I walked in, introduced myself, and sat down. Nothing special was happening during class, but afterwards, things started to get strange. I was quite famous for the swimming incident, yet no one came to ask me about it. For the next few days, I observed that most people saw me as one of two things: a stuck up athlete or an unreachable idol. I wasn't either. I was an athlete, for I was still swimming, but I wasn't stuck up. I loved to talk to people, and everyone was my equal. I also wasn't an unreachable idol; I was just a normal human with a talent for swimming. Most people didn't realize that. About two weeks after my first day, I told myself that I would talk to my parents about becoming a teacher. Before I reached home though, a group of guys came up to me and sarcastically shouted, "Hey! Look! It's the amazing swimmer!"**

**It was too obvious that they were mocking me, but I didn't do anything about it. "Thanks. I'm not good enough apparently though," I tried joking.**

**"Hey, he's trying to seem modest. That's ridiculous. He's trying to be our friend! Let's show him what us men are really like!" The guy cracked his knuckles and slowly started to walk towards me. I didn't move, but when he threw a punch, I caught it and threw him over me. "Hey, I'm a pretty strong guy. Don't underestimate me."**

**At that, the whole group charged at me. It was hard. There were four of them, so I was bound to lose. I gave them some heavy damage, but I was completely out. I heard someone say, "Hey, I think we've messed him up pretty bad. Let's go before someone catches us."**

**With that, they left. The snow started falling as I drifted to sleep. I woke up here in the student lounge.**

Nanami was still leaning on Ryouta. Ryouta opened his eyes and looked at Nanami. She was still gazing outside at the completely frosted window, but he could tell that she listened.

"Hey Ryouta, so what's your actual regret?"

"I'm not entirely sure."

"You should probably figure that out."

"Haha! Yeah, you're right, Nanami. That would be a good idea."

"What do you think it is?"

"I said I wasn't sure. Was the problem that I lost the race? Was the problem that I couldn't talk to my parents about becoming a teacher? Was it the fact that I couldn't fit in with my new school? Maybe the problem was that I took up swimming in the first place. Where was the first mistake? I don't really know?"

"So how would you go about getting over your regret?"

"I thought that I could recreate the race again. No one in the afterlife could even think of challenging me until Kouhei appeared. Now that Kouhei's here, I wanna race him."

"Are you trying to move on?"

"I think it would feel good. I want to know that feeling. If I move on, then so be it."

The two sat alone while gazing at the window for a few more, silent minutes. Out of nowhere, Nanami stated, "I'm tired. I'm gonna go to my room."

Ryouta smiled and responded, "Now there's our normal Nanami. It feels weird when you're all sentimental."

* * *

Kouhei walked out of the SSS room because there wasn't much to do in there. Before long, he ran into Ryouta.

"Hey! Kouhei! I've been looking for you to go swimming. Where were you?"

"Sorry man. I had a fever, so I decided that it would be better to take a break since we're tapering. Why aren't you at practice?"

"I had a chat with Nanami. Oh, random question. Did you do anything with Angel? I heard that you were being dragged somewhere with him."

"Otonashi? We just talked a little bit. Nothing too much. What did you think?"

"I thought he might have brainwashed your or something like that."

"That's a little ridiculous, but you are Ryouta. What were you talking to Nanami about?"

"Moving on, friends, regrets. A lot of afterlife related stuff."

"I can't imagine Nanami wanting to talk about sentimental stuff like that. She's also so emotionless. I'll assume you were talking about your regret then?"

"Yeah. I wonder what Nanami has been doing or thinking about lately. She was acting a little funny."

"Who knows? She rarely shares her thoughts unless someone asks."

"She's not a bad girl by any means though. I like her. So Kouhei, what are you going to do now?"

"I'll go to the cafeteria; I'm a little hungry. You wanna come?"

"Naa, I'm on a diet because of swimming. Later then."

* * *

Ayaka, Riku, and Daiki were sitting in the SSS room. The laptop was placed in the center of the table, and it was positioned so all three could see the screen.

Daiki asked, "What could rewrite this world?"

Riku answered, "We have no proof anything was rewritten."

Ayaka added, "Yeah Daiki! It's only a popup! That's common on the internet!"

"Ayaka, you're right, but I think Daiki's getting at something else. There's never been a popup in this world before. If one came, I wouldn't be too surprised, but the popup's message is a bit disturbing."

They three fell silent for a moment and looked back at the screen. Daiki then inquired, "What could it mean?"

Ayaka tried to scholarly explain, "Well, you see, we do not fear what we know, for we know how to beat our knowledge. What gets us is when we're attacked by something we're not familiar with!"

"I think Daiki figured that much out; he's probably asking what it means when we get a popup like this."

"Daiki! That's too hard to understand! Ask your questions in a straightforward manner!"

Daiki sighed before prompting, "Could this be the work of Angel?"

Riku hushed Ayaka who tried to shout by stating, "Angel attacks when we attack. We haven't done anything recently. This also doesn't hurt us; it's more of a warning."

Ayaka curiously asked, "What could it be warning us about though?"

Daiki explained, "I cannot conceive a plausible, figurative meaning. I can only think of taking it literally."

Ayaka was still a bit stubborn, so she pouted, "Hey! How do you know this thing is even serious? It could just be a joke."

Riku replied, "I wondered that too, but this popup refuses to close. The computer's pretty much useless right now. I can't hack around it either; the person who programmed it must be a computer genius. And which computer genius will do a prank like this for fun?"

The three fell silent wondering what the message on the computer meant. It simply had a completely black screen with three words on it.

**Fear The Unknown**

* * *

The cafeteria suddenly became silent. There were a bunch of kids eating even though the rules clearly stated not to, and the student council secretary was standing in the door. Kouhei was sitting at a table with a recently bought platter of mapo dofu, five servings of rice, and five cups of water.

Sakune looked around and noticed Kouhei. Sakune whispered to himself, "Perfect timing." Weaving through the seats, Sakune walked next to Kouhei and started a small chat.

"Sup Kouhei. What are you eating?"

"That aside; aren't you supposed to reprimand everyone here?"

"Screw it. It's not like anyone or anything's being hurt if you guys eat here. The school gets more money if more food is bought; therefore the student council gets more funding. Along with that, the students get food. Win-win situation, if I don't say so myself."

"That's a surprisingly good argument. It's mapo dofu. Want a bite?"

"I bet I can keep a straighter face than you after eating it. Wanna bet?"

"What wages?"

"If I win, you have to listen to a proposition. If you win, I'll be your personal slave for a week."

"How much mapo dofu do you usually eat?"

"After the first experience, none."

Kouhei confidently thought that he would win, since he had been eating mapo dofu a few times a week out of boredom. Accepting the bet, Kouhei divided the plate in half. Sakune counted down from five, and the two started to eat. Since Sakune never said anything about rice and water, Kouhei drowned the spiciness in water and rice, but the extreme flavor prevailed. With a huge work of willpower, Kouhei managed to only bite his lips and shut his eyes. Completely confident that he won, Kouhei opened his eyes to admire the suffering Sakune was going through. Sakune's face was completely expressionless.

"So Kouhei, I think I won."

"How can you possibly resist the flavor?!"

"It's what happens when you can't taste anything due to dead taste buds."

"That's foul play."

"All's fair in love and war, bro. So you have to listen to my proposition, but first, I want to ask you a few questions."

"I did lose, so do what you must."

"Out of curiosity, why did Prez invite you to the student council room?"

"He made me a proposition, just as you are now."

"May I ask what it was?"

"Otonashi asked me to be kinda like a double agent. Although I'm helping the SSS in whatever they want to do, I'm secretly helping Otonashi too. He hasn't had me do anything yet though."

"I see. Tell me then, which is more important to you: the SSS that took you in and showed you the ropes of this world, or the angel that desires to wipe away your existence?"

"When you put it like that, the SSS, but that's not a completely true statement. I don't particularly agree with either side, but I think Otonashi is more correct, to say the least."

"I see. I think I could figure out why you believe that if you answer this question. What is your regret?"

Kouhei was taken aback by the sudden question. That was normally something that only the most trusted of friends could ask, but here was a lighthearted Sakune asking such a serious question. Kouhei thought to himself, _I don't know. When I think about my life, I can't think of anything that I regret. What do I tell Sakune though?_

Before Kouhei could think of a good lie, Sakune stated, "Ahh, having a problem? If it's too hard to talk about your regret, then don't do it. It's alright. I don't want to make you too uncomfortable."

"I'll take that offer then. On another note, what's your proposition? Is it to take a peek at changing girls?"

"Ahh come on mate, you can't take me too seriously with those types of things."

"When can I take you seriously then?"

"You can tell. For example, this: my proposition is that you became like a triple agent. As you double agent for Otonashi, you'll be a third agent under me."

"Sakune, you're the student council secretary. I'd only imagine that you became that because you agreed with Otonashi's ideals. Am I wrong?"

"I agree with his ideals, but how he chooses to execute them disturbs me."

"Why should I trust you, may I ask?"

"Why did you trust Otonashi? I think he tricked you."

"How so?"

"Did you walk in there and immediately hear the proposition, or did you chat a bit first?"

"We chatted first."

"About what, Kouhei?"

"About Otonashi's past, the former SSS, and that type of stuff. Why?"

"Has he ever talked about his past before?"

"Of course he has."

"Has he really? Or has he avoided the topic while you try to pick up hints?"

Kouhei paused at Sakune's questioning. It was similar to Daiki in that it was very effective, but the wording was much less overwhelming. Sakune seemed to talk to Kouhei as an equal, while Daiki was slightly talking down to Kouhei. "I guess you're right, Sakune. I have to piece everything that Otonashi drops together. He never really directly talked to me before."

"Since he tells you about his past, he is appearing to place his trust in you. Once you have trust placed in you, you naturally reciprocate it, and thus, you unconsciously began to trust Prez.

"Alright, and what does that mean?"

"This leads to that, and I feel that you should accept my proposition. Of course you have your own choice."

"You're doing the same thing as Otonashi though. You're just overloading me with information to gain my trust, am I right?"

"You're completely right. You have no good reason to trust me besides the fact that you shouldn't trust Otonashi. But let's be honest now, we both know that the best plan for both of us is for you to accept."

"I guess you're right, but I'll have to think about it" Kouhei smiled and left Sakune after that. Realizing that the proposition was just pending, Sakune felt a bit relieved, but then his stomach started to hurt.

"Oh man. I can't taste mapo tofu, but it still gives the worst stomach ache."

* * *

Jordan was walking down the hallway quickly. He heard information from Riku regarding the computer, but Jordan wanted to see it for himself. "There's no way that the computer could get hacked into. It shouldn't be possible," he muttered to himself. He was slowly turning to a jog, but he accidentally ran into a kid.

Donning his cold expression, Jordan glared at the NPC, but to Jordan's surprise, the NPC's glare was even colder. At first, Jordan staggered, but he soon recollected himself and resumed his cold stare. Jordan saw that he was carrying a laptop after school-hours which was highly irregular for a NPC. The two stared for a few more seconds then turned around and went their separate ways. Jordan thought to himself, _Probably a human, but I have something more important to look at right now. I can find and recruit him later._

Jordan continued to jog to the SSS room. He said the password, opened the door, and ran to the laptop. After being opened, the laptop was purely black with the same message.

**Fear The Unknown**

"Looks like Riku was being honest. To be programmed so well that Riku can't hack into it, this must be done by someone very good with computers. No one I can think of in the SSS is that good nor is Angel. There's the rest of the student council, but they have no reason to act like this." Jordan heard the door open behind him, so he turned to see who came in.

"Jordan! What are you doing here? Want to play?"

"Ahh, Ayaka. I'm just observing; ignore me."

"Cold as ever! Why can't you be fun like Kouhei or Ryouta?"

"I'm not them. You're good with plans, right?"

"I'm supposed to be! Do you want to play a game of Shogi or something?"

"No. Being a leader, I suppose you know about the laptop's problem. Have you gained any information about it?"

"I can't think of anyone who can and would want to do this, and Riku is still trying to track the program's origin."

"So can you make any plans to counter it? Or are we defenseless?"

"Nothing as of now."

"That's disturbing."

"I'm a little worried too, Jordan. Then again, it's not like we can die in this world, so there's not too much to be worried about. The message tells us to fear the unknown, so Mariko told me that maybe this unknown thing won't do anything if we fear it. It's a strange idea, but it makes a little sense."

"That's a serious monologue for a brat like you."

"That's quite offensive Jordan. It's a leader caring for her subordinates."

* * *

Otonashi was sipping key coffee at the rooftop. Looking down, he saw Riku shooting a basketball. First a three pointer, then a layup, then a slam dunk. He looked at a different area to find Mariko shooting arrows at a target. "I didn't know Mariko did archery. I wonder how good she is. I bet she's better than Yurippe. She does look just like Hatsune from this far away though. It's almost strange." Looking to the fields, Otonashi saw Sakune throwing a Frisbee with a few NPC girls. "He isn't actually trying to be a player with NPC's; is he? Is that even possible? Dammit Sakune. I swear that he's gonna be completely useless. Maybe I should just kick him out of the student council."

"Do you gain from observing our everyday lives?"

"I'm not so much as observing you as observing the scenery." Daiki walked up to Otonashi and put a gun up to his head. Unfazed, Otonashi continued, "I believe you've figured out that I'm not a threat unless you do something to me first. And ever since Kouhei came, you guys stopped doing operations. Sakune told me about Monster Stream, but that's not much of an operation at all. It technically abides to school rules."

Daiki slowly lowered the gun, but he suddenly shot in between Otonashi's legs. Daiki stepped to the left and started to lean on the railing. He opened a can of soda and took a sip.

"Soda, Daiki? I thought someone as mature as you would drink tea. Soda is a child's drink!"

"Why are children less mature than adults?"

"Children are younger, therefore less mature; right?"

"So maturity comes with age?"

"Eh, Yui was just as old as me, but the maturity level was interesting."

"Whom do you speak of when you say 'Yui'"

"Someone who graduated before you guys came. The second graduate I saw, I believe."

"I see. Yui was as old as you, but less mature. Does maturity come from age?"

"I guess not. What are you getting at? There's usually some bigger meaning to your questions."

"Do we move on by maturing?"

"That's surprisingly straightforward. Why would I know?"

"Are you not Angel?"

"I already told you that I'm a normal human with one abnormal ability." To prove himself, Otonashi materialized hand sonic version one and sliced through the air a few times.

"Can you not do more?"

"Nope."

"You're lying."

"That's the first non-question. Good job. I'm guessing that you saw one of Yurippe's reports on the laptop recently. She talked about Angel's hand sonic, overdrive, and many harmonics. I can only use hand sonic. At the time those reports were written, Angel referred to someone else."

"I have no reason to believe that you can use this skill 'harmonics', but do you recall me injuring you recently?"

"You shot in between my legs, but you didn't actually hit me. Why?"

"Have you checked?"

Looking down, Otonashi saw a little hole and blood coming out of his shoe. "Oh, what happened there?"

"Overdrive reduces pain. The foot also doesn't have a strong sense of touch in the first place. I barely nipped you, but you should have felt it had you not had overdrive."

"You, Ayaka, Mariko, and now Kouhei. There's a good amount of thinkers in your group."

Finishing his soda, Daiki ignored Otonashi's response and walked back downstairs. In his mind, he was thinking, _He thought I looked at the laptop files recently. That means he is unaware of the message on the laptop. If not Angel, then who?_

* * *

Kouhei was lying on his bed. He looked outside to see the sun starting to set. "It's the start of winter, so maybe it's around four. I'm tired though. I guess I'll take a nap or something."

As Kouhei closed his eyes, the door opened. In came his NPC roommate. "Ah! Good afternoon Kouhei!"

"Oh. Hey there. What might you be doing now?"

"I'm going to start studying."

_Boring as usual_. "I see. I'm going to take a nap, so do you mind doing it somewhere else?"

"Of course, Kouhei!"

_They're also very obedient._

"But if you don't mind, could you help me in math later? You're good at it, right?"

_Although they're blank slates, they aren't machines. They can do stuff like this, out of the ordinary._ "If I'm feeling it, I'll come over. Where will you be?"

"I'll be in the student lounge."

"Alright, see ya."

"Goodbye, Kouhei."

The NPC walked out of the room and Kouhei was left on his bed alone again. He closed his eyes, but for some reason, Kouhei couldn't fall asleep. After tossing and turning a little bit, Kouhei walked out the door and towards the student lounge. There weren't many people in the hallways, so Kouhei meandered around until he was at the lounge's door. Opening the door, Kouhei scanned the room for his roommate, but no one seemed to be there. From behind a desk, a voice said, "Oh, Kouhei, is that you?"

"There you are. You said you wanted help with math homework?"

"Yeah, calculus is hard."

After Kouhei helped his roommate, they fell into a chat. Feeling especially bored, Kouhei asked, "How would you feel if your best friends disappeared one day without a trace?"

"I'd be sad, but it hasn't happened to me yet. It's a little cruel, but I really don't mind if people disappear; I just wish that the fun people would stay."

_The fun people? NPC's are all blank slates, so they're boring, so does "fun people" refer to normal humans? Do NPC's notice that humans disappear?_ "What do you mean that you wish fun people would stay?"

"There's usually a group of fun people that I enjoy watching, but they always seem to disappear after a year or two. There are some exceptions; the current student council president is a pretty fun guy, and he's been here for a while. Before him, there was this girl named Tachibana Kanade. She was the president before Otonashi. She stayed for a really, really long time. It's strange though. I remember talking to Kanade, and she said that she's only here to wait for a special someone. Now there are rumors floating around that Otonashi is waiting for a special someone. Do only people with special someone's stay? But why did Kanade leave? Did she meet her special someone?"

_That's an unusual thing for an NPC to say. This guy isn't a human, is he?_

"Hey, I have a really weird question for you. Have you ever died?"

"Died?! That's crazy! Of course I haven't!"

_So he isn't a human. NPC's are supposed to act like everything is normal, right. Then again, they may be acting normal, but maybe they actually can perceive our strangeness, or in this case, the fun. _"Sorry, I don't know why I asked that."

"It's alright Kouhei. I'm gonna go eat dinner. You want to come?"

"Naa, I just ate. I'm meeting up with some friends later."

* * *

"But what did I mean by 'some friends'?" Kouhei asked himself as he wandered around the school looking for a normal human. He was thinking about going to the SSS room, but he guessed that Ayaka would be there. Sadly for her, Kouhei didn't feel like putting up with her at the moment. "This school isn't too large; I'll meet someone if I wander around enough." Surely enough, Kouhei rounded a corner and bumped into someone. He looked up to see Riku and down to see that who was hit.

"Ahh! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Oh, K-Kouhei. How are you?"

Looking down, Kouhei saw Mariko pick herself off the floor while rapidly apologizing. _She seems to be shy and proper. Thus, we have a shy and proper, Mariko, a super lively, cute loli, Ayaka, and an emotionless beauty, Nanami. I could definitely see this becoming a stereotypical harem anime. _"No, it's my fault Mariko. Are you alright?"

She immediately responded, "Of course! Do you have any business with me or Riku?"

Riku decided to jump in. "You know; Kouhei just happened to run into you. It's not like he was looking for either of us. Are you doing anything though, Kouhei?"

"I was actually just really bored and looking for something to do. Do either of you mind if I tag along for a bit?"

Mariko managed to stutter out, "Th-that's completely fine, K-Kouhei!"

Riku smoothly added, "Fine by me. We're just heading to the SSS room."

"For what?"

"Some operation was called, but it was for Mariko and any volunteers. Wanna help?"

"I've got nothing better to do."

* * *

"Ok everyone!"Ayaka unnecessarily shouted, "It's time for operation **_Death of The Devil_**!"

A few things ran through Kouhei's mind. First he though, _death of the devil? _Afterwards, he started to imagine some ridiculous things: the SSS finding a pit to hell itself. They jump in and fight through the underworld's guardians in order to kill Satan. Then after killing Satan, the SSS comes back up to find God waiting to congratulate them. Since the SSS's goal was to find God, they would succeed. We would then hurt, maim, injure, or kill God. _Ayaka, I'm sorry, but this is crazy._

"What might one do for this operation?" Daiki calmly asked before sighing.

Riku added, "Why is Mariko the only necessary one for this while everyone else is optional? Were you planning on only sending Mariko to hell or something?!"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" responded Ayaka, "we're just helping Mariko get over her shyness."

"And how does that possibly have anything to do with the name **_Death of The Devil_**?" Kouhei asked.

"The SSS always names their operations awesomely! I thought I'd give it a try too! What do you think Kouhei?!" Ayaka excitedly answered.

Kouhei rebutted, "But the 'awesome names' at least related to the operation. Operation Monster Stream was at a stream, for example. How does helping Mariko's shyness have anything to do with killing Satan?"

"Oh, I just thought it sounded cool." Ayaka sheepishly explained.

"Dammit Ayaka. How about this?" started Kouhei, "The Devil is Mariko's shyness, and we're getting rid of it, which is kinda like killing it, and thus we get the death of the devil."

"You're so smart Kouhei! You understood me all along!" Ayaka jubilantly praised.

"You're just using me to cover for your stupidity," Kouhei muttered to himself.

"Alright, we got that cleared up. How will this operation work though?" Riku asked.

"Everyone in this room will be part of it. That makes up, let's see." Ayaka started to count and name the people in the room, "Me, Mariko, Kouhei, Riku, Daiki, and Jordan. That's five people plus Mariko."

Kouhei looked into the corner of the room, and to his surprise, Jordan was coolly sitting in the corner of the room. His's presence was so small that Kouhei didn't notice anyone in the corner. _He's such a cold guy. Why did he want to help Mariko? Or did he come without knowing what the operation was about?_

Ayaka continued, "Ok! This is how it'll go. The operation will last for one hundred twenty hours. That's five days. During that time, we'll all make embarrassing moves on Mariko randomly. After a while, she'll get used to the awkwardness and her shyness will go away!"

"Is that truly supposed to work?" Daiki immediately asked in a surprisingly sarcastic tone.

"I tried hard to think of that plan!"

Riku smirked before stating, "You're supposed to be a really good strategist and planner. Your battle tactics and logic are actually quite good. I never would have guessed how bad this plan would be."

"That's mean, Riku!" cried Ayaka.

"Hey, hey, hey," Kouhei interrupted, "how about this? Instead of making embarrassing moves on Mariko, we'll all spend one day with her. We'll just accompany her all day. Each person will try to help Mariko throughout the day."

Riku said, "I'll second that."

Daiki asked, "As improbable as it may be, does anyone have a better idea?"

Ayaka pouted, "Fine, Kouhei! You win. You're plans better. I liked mine though."

"Awesome!" Kouhei shouted, "The order. How about Ayaka, Riku, Daiki, and then me?"

"Forgetting someone?" sneered Jordan from the corner.

"Ah, shoot! Sorry dude! You'll be day five!" corrected Kouhei. He then thought to himself, _No offense, but you're such a cold person. Can you make anyone feel better or less shy? Whatever_.

"Alrighty!" Ayaka started, "one hundred twenty hours. Five days." She clicked what looked like a laser pointer and a huge sign popped onto the projector.

**Operation Start**

* * *

And that's chapter five. So sorry for the long wait, as I said before, my computer decided to delete all my files. I had to rewrite everything before the scene before Jordan's first scene. After that was written on the fly. It didn't turn out nearly as good as the original version, but it's good enough. As always, reviews, favorites, follows, PM's, and suggestions are always wanted and appreciated.

The next 2-5 chapters will be Ayaka, Riku, Daiki, Kouhei, and Jordan's days with Mariko. I just haven't chosen how many days will be in each chapter.

So I have finally come to acknowledge how hard it is to write a good story. Good job actually talented Fanfiction writers; I applaud you.

So to any other readers, thank you for reading, and until next time.


	6. The Computer Lab

I don't own Angel Beats or any related parties in anyway.

Forgive me for any grammar or spelling mistakes, it's hard to catch them all.

* * *

The Computer Lab

"Alright! It's time for the day where you lose your shyness!" Ayaka shouted. Without a moment waste, she jumped right at the helpless Mariko who was standing in the room. Embracing Mariko in a hug, Ayaka cooed, "I love you, Mariko!"

Mariko quickly cried, "A-Ayaka! Get off of me!"

"No, no, no," Ayaka explained, "you have to hug me back! That's the first step to curing shyness!"

Shyness can be cured by laid out steps and instruction? Or by confessing love? Mariko thought to herself. "Ah! I'm sorry, Ayaka! I should have known better!"

"No!" Ayaka reinforced, "you can't say sorry to everything! That promotes shyness!"

Then what am I supposed to do?! Mariko cried in her mind.

"Ah, never mind. Say Mariko, how about we go to a karaoke bar?"

There are karaoke bars in this world?! Ayaka, what have you been hiding from us! Mariko frustratingly shouted in her mind. With her normal shy voice, she asked, "Are there actually karaoke bars in this world, Ayaka?"

Without pondering for a second, Ayaka gleefully shouted, "Of course there are! Just follow me!"

Mariko was dragged along by Ayaka. Mariko was wondering why this school would possibly offer something as strange as a karaoke bar, but she reasoned that it may have been necessary for someone to move on. Ayaka's grip was tightening on Mariko's, so Mariko murmured, "Ayaka, my hand hurts."

"Yes! You're talking on your own freewill for your own interests! That's the first step to defeating shyness!" rejoiced Ayaka.

I thought the first step was hugging you when you hugged me. Do you actually have anything planned out at all? You're the SSS's strategist, yet this is what you have planned? Dummy. Mariko just smiled innocently as she thought of the cruel thoughts.

"Mariko! You're smile is really cute!"

Giggling, Mariko thought, If only you knew what I was thinking. "Thanks Ayaka." She whispered. After thanking Ayaka, Mariko averted her eyes.

"Mariko! You have to have direct eye contact with me when we speak!" reprimanded Ayaka as she tapped Mariko's head solidly.

"I'm sorry!"

"Don't apologize with everything!"

"I'm sorry, I won't apologize again!"

"You're still doing it!"

"THEN WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!" snapped Mariko.

"That's exactly it," Ayaka gently cooed as she gently smiled at Mariko, "just let yourself say what you want every once in a while."

"I see. I'm sorry for taking so long to figure that out."

Sighing, Ayaka muttered, "I told you to stop apologizing."

* * *

"Are you sure it was a good idea to leave Mariko alone with Ayaka?"

"Are you sure it's safe to eat mapo dofu, Kouhei?"

"That's a really interesting way to avoid my questions. It's safe, but it's a little painful."

"Only a little? I guess that's how dangerous it is to leave Mariko with Ayaka. Don't worry, I, Ito Riku, will correct any strange habits Ayaka gives Mariko!"

"Good luck with that." Kouhei looked down at his platter of mapo dofu, and then he looked back up at Riku. "Are you sure you don't want some?"

"I enjoy having fully functioning taste buds, thank you very much."

"Alright, but won't you eat anything?"

"I'm not all that hungry. If you haven't realized, you're actually the only kid in the cafeteria who's even eating."

After Riku proclaimed something that ridiculous, Kouhei decided to look around. Although there were other kids eating in the cafeteria, the amount was strangely small. Estimating ten kids, Kouhei was trying to think of a reason for such an oddity. The world is comprised of mainly NPC's, so the normal thing to do would be to eat during breakfast. It is a Sunday, so there will be fewer kids than usual, but there should be more than this.

"So Kouhei, why do you think there's a lack of students at breakfast?"

"It's Sunday, so it's completely possible that there will be less kids, but there has to be some event going on right now that reduces the number further. If it was a beneficial thing, like an early morning concert, Otonashi would have promoted it to everybody over the school's broadcasting system. Thus, we probably can conclude that something negative is happening to NPC's. No NPC's are freaking out, so it's not a natural disaster like a fire in a dorm, so it must be some strange behavior of a human. Of the SSS members who are powerful enough to start an operation that would cause this, we have us, Daiki, Ayaka, Mariko, Jordan, Ryouta, and Nanami. We're here, Ayaka and Mariko are on their own operation, and Ryouta's swimming. We can move this down to Jordan, Daiki, and Nanami."

"So you're putting the blame on one of them?"

"Daiki's philosophy would hold him from murdering random NPC's."

"So let's assume it's not Daiki."

"Nanami's too unmotivated to start this type of operation."

"It's a strange though, but she could be killing as many NPC's as possible to kill the time."

"She'll run out sooner or later, and then she'll be bored again, so I doubt she'd do that."

"That's a terrible thing to say, Kouhei! How about Jordan?"

"I hate to actually accuse him of anything, but he's the last person I could think of. Although I doubt that he would start this type of operation, it is a possibility."

Riku, watching Kouhei finish his mapo dofu, suggested, "Shall we go look for Jordan then?"

"Eh, we've got nothing better to do at the moment."

* * *

"So there really was a karaoke bar in this world. When did you find it?"

"Alright, Mariko! A great way to encourage talking is to practice with NPC's!"

She just ignored my question? Slightly whimpering, Mariko asked, "Do I have to do this?"

"You're mine today! My wishes are your commands!"

Inaudibly, Mariko whispered, "I thought you were just accompanying me today."

Ayaka blurted out, "Did you say something Mariko! Speak up! We're getting rid of your shyness today! Be loud!"

"Ayaka, I have four more people waiting in line to help. You don't have to do it all yourself."

"I'm the leader! I should be the biggest contributor!"

"What about Daiki?"

"Shut up, Mariko."

"That's mean."

Walking down the hallway, Mariko and Ayaka were strolling and talking. Mariko was starting to grow a little impatient of Ayaka's straightforwardness, but the morning had already gone by, so Mariko thought that she could survive the rest of the day.

Interrupting Mariko's thoughts, Ayaka asked, "So are we going to look for a NPC to have a good conversation with?"

"I don't know, aren't you supposed to tell me?"

"Be more assertive! That's a great way to cure shyness! "

"Al-alright Ayaka. Tell me what I'm supposed to do."

Putting her palm to her face, Ayaka monotonously stated, "You were supposed to be assertive and say what you wanted to do, not assertive in making me assertive. Is that even being assertive?"

"Just tell me. Are we going to go NPC hunting?"

"Eh, it's right after breakfast, so there are usually a bunch of NPC's scurrying around, but there don't seem to be any in the hall today. Whatever, let's do something else!"

Mariko followed Ayaka, but Mariko started to think. Why is there such a lack of NPC's? I can't go investigate myself, because I'll be with Ayaka for today; I doubt she'd let me do anything that won't help my shyness. Maybe one of the boys will help me. Why aren't there any NPC's though?

"Mariko, are you alright? You seem to be thinking about something."

"Ah! Sorry! Were you saying something?"

"No, but I decided what our next event should be!"

I guess Ayaka won't even give me enough time to think about it. "So these are events now? What's next?"

Ayaka pointed a building out to Mariko. It was the boy's dormitory. Picking up a stone, Ayaka winked and started to aim top left corner window.

* * *

Jordan was changing in his room when he heard a loud bang from his window. He looked towards the direction to see shattered glass and a stone. Walking over and looking outside, Jordan saw Mariko alone. He asked himself, "Is Mariko crying?"

From below, Jordan heard Mariko's voice faintly shouting, "Forgive us!" She then proceeded to run away."

He tried to figure out what just happened. "A stone was thrown threw my window, and Mariko was standing outside. She wasn't trying to get my attention, because she ran away. She also said 'forgive us'. That means there's more than one person. Ayaka should have been with Mariko. Ayaka would definitely throw a rock into my window and run. Damn it, Ayaka."

* * *

"Ayaka! Why did you do that? Did you know that was Jordan's room?!"

"Of course I did! It's exactly why I chose that window."

"Then why?!"

"To make you less shy, of course!"

Calming down from the random event, Mariko politely asked, "Ayaka, I have a question. Are you trying to make me less shy or are you trying to make me a trouble maker?"

"I'm obviously trying to make you less shy! That's the point of this operation, right?"

"I see. How does breaking Riku's window make me less shy, but not a trouble maker."

"Oh, if becoming a trouble maker is a side effect of curing your shyness, then so be it!"

"You're terrible Ayaka."

"I love you, Mariko!"

Mariko just sighed and started to follow Ayaka to her next random antic.

* * *

"Yo, Jordan. What happened to this place?"

"Ryouta, I didn't realize you entered my room. You also did so without permission. Could you not knock?"

"I'm in here since swimming ended early, so let's forget the details. But really, what happened to your window?"

"I think Ayaka threw a stone at it."

"Why? That's a little strange, even for that little trouble maker."

"It doesn't mean anything to you. Did you come here to get me for something?"

"Have you noticed that there seems to be a lack of NPC's?"

"I just woke up, has there been?"

"So you aren't the cause either."

"The cause?"

"There's a huge deficient of NPC's today. Riku, Kouhei, and I have met up and thought that either you, Daiki, Nanami, or some person we don't know caused it. Although I didn't want to suspect a fellow SSS member, I couldn't ignore the possibility. Apparently you aren't the problem. Do you know where Daiki or Nanami might be?"

"Shut up and get out of my room."

Laughing, Ryouta assured, "Alright, alright! I'll take that as a no; see ya later."

After Ryouta closed the door, Jordan threw on a dress shirt. He wasn't planning on bringing his blades with him that day, but Jordan started to think. Looking outside, he asked himself, "I doubt Nanami or Daiki would cause a NPC deficiency. Could this be the unknown that we're supposed to fear?" Walking out of the room, Jordan grabbed both his kodachis and slung them on his back.

* * *

In a pitch black room, one computer screen was lit. A voice came from the darkness saying, "By now, people should be noticing that people are dying. It's only a matter of time before someone finds a way to escape this hellish world. I just have to sit back, watch, and wait. I can go back to my world. Patience. Patience is virtue."

* * *

"Hey! Wassup Daiki! Yo, a bunch of hotties from the swim team are getting really for practice. You want to make sure their locker room is clean? If you know what I mean."

"No." With a single word, Daiki started to walk away. Sakune was staring at him with confused eyes and an open mouth. Turning around Daiki asked, "That's all you have to ask, Sakune? Good. Goodbye."

"Yo, are you ok? You just denied me!"

"Did you expect me to go with you?"

"There's the normal Daiki. You usually mess me up with some huge string of unanswerable questions. How come you just said, 'no' today? It's weird, dude." Daiki just stared at Sakune for a while, and then he looked at his own hands. "Did you write the answer on your hand, Daiki? What are you looking at yourself for? It won't help answer the question."

"I was just looking at myself to search for a physical change."

"Oh lord! What's wrong? Where are your questions?!"

"Not here."

Sakune lunged at Daiki, so Daiki sidestepped and punched Sakune in the stomach. After recovering from the punch, Sakune lunged at Daiki again, but he stopped short this time. Daiki lost his balance due to the opponents sudden movement change, so Sakune slapped his hand onto Daiki's forehead. "Nope, you don't have a fever."

"You had to go through all of that to check my temperature? Could you not have just asked?"

"I'm scared right now!" Sakune looked left and right in distress, and luckily, Otonashi rounded the corner. "Yo! Prez! Get over here, a.s.a.p.!"

Starting to run, Otonashi shouted, "Is something actually wrong Sakune?"

"Yeah, Daiki's broken!"

Stopping in his tracks, Otonashi asked, "Broken?"

"Yeah! Daiki's completely broken!"

Turning to Daiki, Otonashi skeptically asked, "Umm, are you broken?"

"No."

Jumping back in surprise, Otonashi suddenly faced Sakune and screamed, "Oh God! Why didn't Daiki ask a question?! What's wrong with him?!"

"I don't know, Prez! I thought you could help him!"

Otonashi put his head down in thought and started to think aloud. "Alright, calm down Yuzuru. Let's bring Daiki to the infirmary. There, we can…what can I do? I don't know!" looking up, Otonashi commanded, "Alright! Sakune, let's bring him to the infirmary! We can think of the next step there!"

"Gotcha, Prez! I got the legs!"

Daiki was about to ask what 'I got the legs!' meant, but Otonashi suddenly grabbed his wrists. Without any time for Daiki to react, his legs were grabbed by Sakune and Daiki got heaved into the air. Sakune and Otonashi ran down the hall at full speed, kicked open the infirmary door, and threw Daiki into a bed.

"Was that necessary?"

Sakune immediately reacted, "Why are you not asking everything in questions?!"

"That was a question."

Otonashi franticly retorted, "That wasn't though! What's wrong, Daiki?!"

"This is going to be a long day."

* * *

"Hey, Riku, do you know where Daiki is?"

"No idea; we found Ryouta. He said he would try to contact Jordan, so they must have met by now. Besides Daiki, don't we also have to find Nanami?"

"It's a Sunday, so she could be lounging in the room. We can't go in the girls dormitory, so what do we do?"

"That's alright, Kouhei. Just call an operation that sounds remotely fun or has to do with hurting Angel. She'll come running at either of those."

"Eh, I'll call her. Random question: what do you think of Otonashi?"

"Otonashi?"

"Ah, sorry. What do you think of Angel?"

"Since when did we have a member who called Angel by his name? Ahh, I hate Angel. It's not that I really have anything against the person, but being Angel, he helps God. I," stopping in the middle of the sentence, Riku suddenly lost his vitality and closed his eyes. "God pisses me off." Pulling out his sword, Riku swung it around then chucked it at a wall.

"You're regret?"

"You know, most regrets happen because the person fails or makes a bad choice. Me though? I couldn't do a damn thing. Why did God have to make me helplessly watch my life fall apart?" Pulling his sword out of the wall, Riku tensed up. He suddenly spun around and slammed the wall with his sword. It broke apart, but Riku just stood there holding the hilt.

"Umm, Riku. Isn't breaking your sword a problem?"

Obviously pissed, Riku tried to calm himself down and explained, "Sorry. You didn't need to see that. I have another one in the SSS room. What were we doing before all of this?"

"Ryouta, Jordan, Daiki, and Nanami."

"Ahh, so we can trust Jordan to Ryouta. We can't do much about Daiki or Nanami though."

"So Ryouta didn't cause the NPC disappearance, nor did we. Who did it then?"

"We wouldn't be doing this if we knew."

* * *

"Hey, Ayaka, what time is it?"

"It is thirteen o' clock. Why?"

Thirteen o'clock. That is synonymous with one PM. I can survive the rest of the day. "No reason, just curious. What shall we do next?"

"Well, it's a good thing you asked, Mariko! We're gonna go play on computers!"

"I see. What for?"

"To have fun!"

Aren't you supposed to help me lost my shyness? This is just a game to you now? Alright then, Ayaka. "Alright, lead me there, Ayaka!"

"OK! To the computer lab!"

Ayaka started to march down the hall, and Mariko slowly strolled after her. The halls had a few NPC's, but the amount was strangely small. Even Ayaka had started to take notice of the problem, but neither she nor Mariko said anything about it. Silently, the two opened the doors to the computer lab. Walking in, Ayaka immediately took out her gun, but as Mariko realized the scene, she grabbed Ayaka and pulled her out of the room.

"Did you see what was wrong, Mariko?"

"It was suspicious, but bringing out your gun probably wouldn't do much."

"Should we call the operation off and talk to the rest of the SSS?"

"There's no reason to call off our operation, but we should meet with the others."

"You know, you're interesting. You're normally shy, but whenever something serious pops up, you're pretty confident. Maybe you just need to take things too seriously starting now!"

"That's ridiculous. Anyways, let's meet up with everyone else."

* * *

"Alright everybody, so that's the situation!"

"Let me clear this up, Ayaka. You and Mariko were walking around doing your stuff, when you two decided to walk into the computer lab. You two open the door, and Mariko walked in. You noticed something wrong, so you pulled her out and started this operation. Right?"

Mariko softly corrected, "We-well actually. Ayaka was the who walked in and I had to pu-"

"Shut up, Mariko!"

"I'm sorry!"

Ryouta, off to the side, joked, "Yo, Ayaka. Weren't you supposed to be curing her shyness instead of promoting it?"

Before Ayaka could retort, Riku calmly asked, "The details are unimportant. Why were we collected here?"

Ayaka explained, "I decided that we should have an operation to investigate this. It's called **Find the Computers**!"

Kouhei remarked, "That's a much less dramatic name than '**Death of the Devil**'."

"If it's less dramatic, it'll be less corny, right?"

Kouhei pondered for a second before responding, "I don't' know, Ayaka. That's still a pretty corny name. I really don't care all that much. So what's gonna happen?"

"Alrighty! We're going to have an operation where everyone will work together, but we'll actually be operating in pairs. It should have consisted of me, Mariko, Riku, Kouhei, Daiki, and Jordan, but Daiki's in the infirmary and Angel won't let him leave for some strange reason. Also Daiki just told me to go, so I assumed it was something important. Thus, we brought Ryouta here!"

Ryouta, slightly disturbed, inquired "So I'm just a replacement now?"

Jokingly, Kouhei responded, "Harsh world, isn't it, Ryouta?"

"And so come the tides of change, right Kouhei?"

"You really relate so many things to the water. It's 'winds of change'. But continue on Ayaka. What are we actually doing?"

"If you guys would stop joking around," started Ayaka.

"Hey, aren't you the one who's always joking?" interrupted Riku.

"If you guys would stop joking around!" Ayaka shouted before a few laughs echoed throughout the room. She let out a very elongated sigh before continuing, "Then I will explain the operation. It'll be a two part, find and retrieve mission. First, we find the missing computers. Once one pair has located some or all the computers, they will stand guard and wait for the rest of the operation members to arrive. Then we'll go in and take back or destroy the computers."

Jordan, previously quiet, began to speak up. "And what does this achieve? Ayaka, you ignorantly started this operation without thinking about the cause and conclusion. This scenario is obviously happening because of a human who isn't part of the SSS. Succeeding in this operation would mean that we would lose our main path to this human. Shouldn't we try to recruit him? Or do you not care about that?"

Defending Ayaka, Riku explained, "You're being quite harsh, Jordan. What if it's a student council member?"

"They promote the peace of this world. I can't imagine that stealing computers would uphold peace."

"There is no reason that they can't start something against us! Although Angel might not want to attack us, the vice-president and secretary are both humans to our knowledge! There's nothing stopping them!"

"Except that they're loyal to Angel. That's not even what I'm criticizing this. I'm criticizing the fact that Ayaka's planning has been terrible lately."

"Jordan! Do you ev-"

Cutting Riku off, Ayaka somberly said, "Riku, I can accept a little criticism. It's all about the situation" Kouhei looked up into Ayaka's eyes. There was a single, unshed tear. He began to deduce the situation, but Ayaka kept talking, so he decided to listen up first. "The pairs will be as follows: Riku and Jordan, Ryouta and Kouhei, me and Mariko. Anyone have any problems with that?" There was a pause. "I'll take that as a no. If we all know what's happening, then this operation has officially started. It will last until completion or this time tomorrow, whichever comes first."

Jordan sneered, "And what happens if five hours goes by. We just let it go and let shit happen?"

"We'll gather and think of the next best option."

"Fine then. Don't get in my way though."

* * *

"Ayaka. Are you ok?" Mariko kept on looking at Ayaka after asking the question, but Ayaka didn't seem to notice that anyone was even talking to her. "Ayaka" Mariko asked before tapping Ayaka's shoulder.

"Ah! I'm sorry. Do you need something?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Ayaka, it's not like you to just say 'nothing'. There's obviously something wrong!" Suddenly, Mariko became flustered and shouted, "Bu-but I'm not making you say anything! You don't have to if you don't want to!"

"I'll do that."

_What's wrong with Ayaka? She's always talking. I can't find anything out like this._

* * *

"Yo, Ryouta, did you feel like something was off with Ayaka?"

"Of course I did. She seemed so somber. As annoying as she can be, she's not the Ayaka that we love when she's not all peppy and such."

"We love Ayaka? That's a terrible thought."

"That's harsh, Kouhei. Where are we heading though?"

"Just kidding, man. Ayaka's important to me too. To answer your question, they said that something was wrong with the computer lab, but I wanted to actually see what's actually wrong."

Kouhei led Ryouta to the hallway where the computer lab was, but when they rounded the corner, they saw Otonashi observing the computer lab. Ryouta immediately jumped out of Otonashi's line of sight and pulled Kouhei along with him.

"So what are we going to do about this, Kouhei?"

"If we walk casually, he has no reason to suspect us."

"We're skipping class, so we'd get in trouble."

"We're going to the computer lab; we could say it's for some project."

"Do you think he'll believe that? I can't believe it'd be that easy to trick an angel, much less Angel."

_Well, Otonashi is only a human, so he is trick-able. But apparently you aren't supposed to know that._ "It's better to give it a try."

"I'd have to disagree, but I won't stop you. I'll cover you if he attacks."

"I can't imagine Otonashi attacking me because I'm skipping class, although a new thought popped into my head."

"And that thought is?"

"Why is he here in the first place? Maybe he can help us in this operation."

"That's more insane than your last idea."

"There's a method to my madness."

"Usually."

At that cue, Kouhei rounded the corner and casually walked up to Otonashi.

"Kouhei? Why aren't you in class?"

"I had to go to the computer lab for a class project."

"What project?"

"I need to do research for my World History paper."

"Why are you the only one?"

"I finished the classwork early, so the teacher let me come."

"I see. And you're lying. There's someone ready to shoot me if I do anything to you. You're working for me, am I wrong?"

"And what am I supposed to do?"

"Tell me the story."

"I may be working for you, but they're my friends too. I feel like I shouldn't betray them like that."

"So helping your friends in their shenanigans is more important than helping them move on to a better life?"

"Maybe this is the better life."

"I see that there's no reason in arguing that. Random question, has the SSS gotten any messages saying something like 'fear the unknown'?"

"Not that I know of, but it's completely possible."

"Could you find out for me, Kouhei? Think of it as my first mission for you."

"Possible, but you'll have to first let me check out the lab."

Otonashi nodded and headed in the opposite direction. Kouhei waved Ryouta over, so they entered the computer lab together. Before completely leaving, Otonashi turned around and warned, "Kouhei. Remember this phrase: the shadows may be back." He then turned around again and left.

"So, Kouhei. What did you say to Angel to make him go away? And what did that phrase mean?"

"I bargained with him, but that shadow thing was a mystery to me too."

* * *

"So Mariko, we can work on our personal operation while the other two pairs work on **Find the Computers**"

"So negating my shyness is more important than this huge problem?"

"It's not a huge problem! It's a short-term goal. Destroying your shyness is a long-term goal! It'll be more important when we all grow up and become old!"

"Become old?" Suddenly, Mariko's eyes lost the normal glint, and her body lost its usual calmness to a gloomy feeling.

"Is something wrong, Mariko? You're usually a little quiet, but this is different."

Looking at Ayaka with dead eyes, Mariko questioned, "Can we grow old anymore? What's the point of settling down here if we can't grow?"

"Why can't we grow here?"

"We're dead. Our bodies don't age."

"So bodily age is what determines if we grow? I'm just as old as everyone else here, but I'm always seen as the kid sister. Why?"

"Maybe because you're a little bit, umm, small?"

"That's true, but it's also because I'm not as mature. Thus, I'm less 'aged' than the others here."

"Really? Is that how it works here?"

"That's what I like to think. You know, this feels like I'm talking to Daiki. It's so boring! We're supposed to be curing your shyness!

"And that other, more important mission. What's the time?"

"Umm, it's twenty."

"8:00 PM, eh. I'm feeling strangely tired. It's not that late at all."

"You're gonna sleep early today, Mariko?! Are you cured of your shyness?"

"It's better, but not cured. Why?"

"Darn! I wanted to cure it all by myself! I lost!"

"Don't worry about that, Ayaka," embracing her, Mariko continued, "you did a fine job. You're part of my operation has ended."

Letting go of each other, Ayaka looked up into Mariko's eyes and genuinely smiled. "Darn. But I guess I should let my comrades take their share of responsibilities. We can be excited for how Riku does tomorrow! Right?"

Chuckling, Mariko cooed, "Yeah. Now that that operation is done for us, why don't we concentrate on the other operation?"

"Aww! Do I have to?"

"Of course you do, Ayaka."

* * *

"Hey, Ryouta. Could you turn the lights on? You're closer to the switch.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Ryouta stepped outside the room and flicked the switch up. He rubbed his eyes because he was a little tired, but opened them to the newly lit room. Immediately, he grabbed at his weapon, but Kouhei had already taken out his sword and gun. "Question to Kouhei! Why did we take out weapons out?"

"It's become one of our instincts when we feel that something's amiss."

"I can't see anything too bad happening. You think it's safe to put the weapons away?"

"If you're insisting on it." Putting the blade back into his sheath, Kouhei started to analyze the room. It was the computer lab, but there was a disturbing lack of computers. Although there shouldn't have been any immediate danger, Kouhei kept his gun out, just in case.

"For some strange reason, there's not one computer in this room. That's a fair reason to believe that something's off."

"Thus, we're on this operation. Ayaka and Mariko have already seen it. I'd imagine that Jordan and Riku are thinking about checking the place out."

"So what are we going to do here? We found out what's wrong, but nothing that can help us find the computers."

"There may be some clues."

"It's a blank room with chairs and tables. I can't imagine anything."

"Let me think, Ryouta." Kouhei started to deduce the scenario. _This room had almost one hundred computers. Somehow, all of them were taken. The NPC's aren't over-reacting, so it was obviously the work of a human or group of humans. NPC's aren't completely oblivious though; if a NPC saw someone carrying around desktops, they'd say something and spread rumors. So why are there no rumors? No one has been spotted with a computer. Despite that, someone has managed to sneak almost a hundred computers out of this room into some hiding place. How can someone possibly do that? Invisibility would be the first thing that pops into mind, but even in this world, supernatural happenings aren't very common. _"Ryouta, how could somebody get from point A to point B without ever being caught?"

"I'm not the smartest dude, shouldn't you figure out?"

"I just want your opinion."

"I mean, if you just want any answer, I would say this: just have point A really, really close to point B. If there's no space between the points, you probably won't get caught. I don't know how that will help you though."

Kouhei thought about Ryouta's response. _Have the destination right next to the start. We're looking for the computers. Thus, we don't know where the end point is. We do know that it's easy to get between the two without getting caught. That requirement is easily fulfilled if the end and start are next to each other. Is there some sort of secret passage in this room? _

"Oi, Kouhei, you got any answers?"

"I think there's some sort of a secret passage in this room."

"Secret passage? Where would it start?"

"The ceiling isn't sturdy enough to hold a person and a desktop. The walls would leave an obvious crack if there was some sort of secret passage in it. The floor leads underground, and there can't possibly be rooms underground without some sort of disruption."

"Isn't Guild some huge underground factory?"

"My point has been proven wrong, but wouldn't there be some obvious marking in the floor too?"

"Not if the floor is tiled."

They looked down, and Kouhei noticed that the floor was indeed tiled. "Alright, so the passage could probably be in the floor. So what do we do?"

"Simple, Kouhei. We blow the place up."

"What the hell?"

"Everything auto-regenerates after a while and NPC's don't react to human strangeness. Thus, nothing will really happen if we blow the place up. Shall we start now?"

"I feel like we should gather the rest of the operation first. Do you have a radio?"

"Yeah, let me get everyone else here first then."

* * *

"Jordan, where are we going?"

"Dorm"

"Why?"

"Reasons"

Riku sighed and continued to follow Jordan. Riku couldn't come up with any plan, but he sensed an aura of knowledge coming from Jordan, so Riku just followed for the time. Walking down the path, they reached a fork. Walking left would lead to the boy's dorm, and walking right would lead to the girl's dorm. As Jordan and Riku turned towards the boy's dorm, they heard a shout.

"Jordan, did you hear anything?"

"Obviously." They both turned around to see Nanami blankly staring at them. Jordan asked, "What do you want?"

"I was a little bored, but I heard a radio message from Ryouta and Kouhei to go to the computer lab. It seemed interesting."

Turning towards Jordan, Riku asked, "Did you get anything from your radio?"

"I was too concerned with my own thoughts to listen."

"We probably got one then, but we didn't realize. Nanami, what did the message say?"

"Go to the computer lab and bring explosives."

"Explosives?" Jordan asked.

"Let's just put some trust in everyone else," Riku responded. Together, the three turned around and started to walk back to the main building. Before they made it far though, Jordan turned his head around and stared at the boy's dormitory. He found his room's window and saw that it was still broken. _So it hasn't regenerated yet. Why though?_

* * *

That's that. This chapter was cut much shorter than I wanted for one reason. I completely lost my motivation. I wouldn't expect an update for a while. There's just too much work at the end of the school year. Sorry. Not much to say. Still looking for ideas for anything. Reviews and such are always wanted. Thank you.

Oh look, I hit a thousand views. I guess I should say thank you for that then ^.^


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